Diamagnetic composites for high-Q levitating resonators

TL;DR

This paper introduces graphite particle-based diamagnetic composites that significantly reduce eddy current damping, achieving high-Q levitating resonators suitable for ultra-sensitive room temperature accelerometers.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel composite material that enhances the quality factor of diamagnetic levitating resonators by reducing eddy current losses, enabling practical high-Q levitation at room temperature.

Findings

Achieved Q factors above 450,000 in levitating resonators.

Demonstrated vibration lifetimes exceeding one hour.

Q is over 400 times higher than in pure diamagnetic graphite plates.

Abstract

Levitation offers extreme isolation of mechanical systems from their environment, while enabling unconstrained high-precision translation and rotation of objects. Diamagnetic levitation is one of the most attractive levitation schemes, because it allows stable levitation at room temperature without the need for a continuous power supply. However, dissipation by eddy currents in conventional diamagnetic materials significantly limits the application potential of diamagnetically levitating systems. Here, we present a route towards high $Q$ macroscopic levitating resonators by substantially reducing eddy current damping using graphite particle based diamagnetic composites. We demonstrate resonators that feature quality factors $Q$ above 450,000 and vibration lifetimes beyond one hour, while levitating above permanent magnets in high vacuum at room temperature. The composite resonators have a $Q$ that is more than 400 times higher than that of diamagnetic graphite plates. By tuning the composite particle size and density, we investigate the dissipation reduction mechanism and enhance the $Q$ of the levitating resonators. Since their estimated acceleration noise is as low as some of the best superconducting levitating accelerometers at cryogenic temperatures, the high $Q$ and large mass of the presented composite resonators positions them as one of the most promising technologies for next generation ultra-sensitive room temperature accelerometers.