Optomechanical Detection of Individual Gas Collisions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of optomechanical sensors to detect individual gas particle collisions with nanoparticles, enabling precise pressure measurements and surface property analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for detecting single gas collisions using levitated optomechanical sensors, achieving high sensitivity and potential for fundamental physics applications.

Findings

Detected individual gas collisions with nanoparticles, matching theoretical predictions.

Measured gas partial pressures accurately through event rates.

Reconstructed impulse signals as small as 200 keV/c, showing high sensitivity.

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the detection of momentum transfers from individual collisions of Kr, Xe, and SF$_6$ with an optically levitated nanoparticle, finding good agreement with theoretical expectations. The observed event rates accurately measure the gas partial pressures, while the spectral shape provides a sensitive probe of the surface properties of the nanoparticle, including its temperature. The reconstruction of impulse signals as small as 200 keV/$c$ further establishes that levitated optomechanical sensors can reach the sensitivity required for precision measurements of fundamental particle interactions, and demonstrates a proof-of-principle for a primary pressure sensor based on the detection of individual gas particle collisions.