Nano cavity
In this project, we enhance the interaction between the optical field and a levitated nanoparticle with the help of a subwavelength near field optical cavity.
Motivation
Naturally nano-cavities stand out due to their compactness, but more importantly they also exhibit subwavelength optical modes, which make them interesting tools for optomechanics. In particular, it allows for much stronger optomechanical coupling strengths, minimising the effect of phase noise as observed in macroscopic setups.
In the NanoCavity project we use the evanescent field of a suspended Si3N4 photonic crystal nanobeam to couple to the motion of our levitated nanoparticles.
We use grating couplers to couple the NIR light in and out the nanocavity such that the particle motion can be read out in transmission. The particle itself is held by a separate optical tweezer such that we can control the optomechanical coupling strength by controlling the distance to the nano-cavity.
Research focus
- Control and harnessing evanescent field effects
- Enhancing the optomechanical coupling strength beyond the possibilities of macroscopic setups.