Quantum precision measurement of two-dimensional forces with ${\bf 10^{-28}}$-Newton stability

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a quantum atomic sensor capable of measuring static electromagnetic forces with a stability of 10^{-28} Newton, surpassing previous sensitivities and enabling new fundamental and technological applications.

Contribution

The authors introduce a novel method using atomic matter waves in an optical lattice for ultra-stable, high-precision force measurement, achieving long-term stability at 10^{-28} N.

Findings

Achieved a measurement sensitivity of 2.30(8)×10^{-26} N/√Hz.

Observed long-term stability at the 10^{-28} N level.

Enabled probing of atomic Van der Waals forces at millimeter distances.

Abstract

High-precision sensing of vectorial forces has broad impact on both fundamental research and technological applications such as the examination of vacuum fluctuations \cite{casimir09rmp} and the detection of surface roughness of nanostructures \cite{RevModPhys.89.035002}. Recent years have witnessed much progress on sensing alternating electromagnetic forces for the rapidly advancing quantum technology -- orders-of-magnitude improvement has been accomplished on the detection sensitivity with atomic sensors \cite{Schreppler1486,Shaniv2017,Gilmore673}, whereas precision measurement of static {electromagnetic} forces lags far behind with the corresponding long-term stability rarely demonstrated. Here, based on quantum atomic matter waves confined by an optical lattice, we perform precision measurement of static {electromagnetic} forces by imaging coherent wave mechanics in the reciprocal space. We achieve a state-of-the-art measurement sensitivity of $ 2.30(8)\times 10^{-26}$ N/$\sqrt{\rm \bf Hz}$. Long-term stabilities on the order of $10^{-28}$ N are observed in the two spatial components of a force, which allows probing atomic Van der Waals forces at a millimeter distance \cite{NatureNanoScanning}. As a further illustrative application, we use our atomic sensor to calibrate the control precision of an alternating electromagnetic force applied in the experiment. Future developments of our method hold promise for delivering unprecedented atom-based quantum force sensing technologies.