Weighing an optically trapped microsphere in thermal equilibrium with air

TL;DR

This study demonstrates precise mass measurement of an optically trapped silica microsphere in air using spectral analysis and equipartition methods, achieving uncertainties comparable to vacuum experiments and enabling air-based sensing.

Contribution

It introduces a dual-method approach for weighing microspheres in air, combining spectral analysis and equipartition, with detailed uncertainty analysis and potential sensing applications.

Findings

Spectral analysis yields 3.0 ext% systematic and 0.9 ext% statistical uncertainties.

Equipartition method provides comparable accuracy over shorter measurement times.

Mass estimates are suitable for air-based sensing and comparable to vacuum-based experiments.

Abstract

We report a weighing metrology experiment of a single silica microsphere optically trapped and immersed in air. Based on fluctuations about thermal equilibrium, three different mass measurements are investigated, each arising from one of two principle methods. The first method is based on spectral analysis and enables simultaneous extraction of various system parameters. Additionally, the spectral method yields a mass measurement with systematic relative uncertainty of 3.0\% in 3~s and statistical relative uncertainty of 0.9\% across several trapping laser powers. Parameter values learned from the spectral method serve as input, or a calibration step, for the second method based on the equipartition theorem. The equipartition method gives two additional mass measurements with systematic and statistical relative uncertainties slightly larger than the ones obtained in the spectral method, but over a time interval 10 times shorter. Our mass estimates, which are obtained in a scenario of strong environmental coupling, have uncertainties comparable to ones obtained in force-driven metrology experiments with nanospheres in vacuum. Moreover, knowing the microsphere's mass accurately and precisely will enable air-based sensing applications.