Controlling the centre of mass motion of levitated particles using structured wavefronts

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Rahman, Shah Jee, Stefano, Quimey Pears, Cifuentes, Angel, Francis, Jason T, Gómez-Viloria, Iker, Pellicer-Guridi, Rubén, Varga, Miguel, Molina-Terriza, Gabriel
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Rahman, Shah Jee
Stefano, Quimey Pears
Cifuentes, Angel
Francis, Jason T
Gómez-Viloria, Iker
Pellicer-Guridi, Rubén
Varga, Miguel
Molina-Terriza, Gabriel
author_facet Rahman, Shah Jee
Stefano, Quimey Pears
Cifuentes, Angel
Francis, Jason T
Gómez-Viloria, Iker
Pellicer-Guridi, Rubén
Varga, Miguel
Molina-Terriza, Gabriel
contents Optically levitated particles have great potential to form the basis of novel quantum- enhanced sensors. These systems are very well suited for inertial sensing, as the particles are isolated from the environment when they are levitated at low pressures. However, there are many challenges in the experimental realization that may affect the performance of these systems. For example, optical aberrations in the wavefront of the trapping laser which arise from optical elements or misalignment have a great impact on the trapping potential. The detrimental effect of optical aberrations has not been thoroughly studied, and usually they are iteratively corrected, giving some conflicting results depending on the figures of merit that are used. In this work, we present a thorough study of the effects of structuring the wavefront of the trapping beams. We observe that clean beams, i.e. highly focused beams with unaberrated wavefronts, may be used to optimize the longitudinal frequencies, at the cost of the transversal ones. Our work is based in a combination of experimental studies using a complete basis of orthogonal polynomials (Zernike polynomials) to control the wavefront and a set of numerical calculations, which allow us to compare the impact of structured wavefronts on the quality of traps for optically levitated particles in vacuum. This will have direct applications in quantum sensing and fundamental studies of quantum mechanics, as it allows the reduction of optical backaction and thermal decoherence of the particles.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_17654
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Controlling the centre of mass motion of levitated particles using structured wavefronts
Rahman, Shah Jee
Stefano, Quimey Pears
Cifuentes, Angel
Francis, Jason T
Gómez-Viloria, Iker
Pellicer-Guridi, Rubén
Varga, Miguel
Molina-Terriza, Gabriel
Optics
Optically levitated particles have great potential to form the basis of novel quantum- enhanced sensors. These systems are very well suited for inertial sensing, as the particles are isolated from the environment when they are levitated at low pressures. However, there are many challenges in the experimental realization that may affect the performance of these systems. For example, optical aberrations in the wavefront of the trapping laser which arise from optical elements or misalignment have a great impact on the trapping potential. The detrimental effect of optical aberrations has not been thoroughly studied, and usually they are iteratively corrected, giving some conflicting results depending on the figures of merit that are used. In this work, we present a thorough study of the effects of structuring the wavefront of the trapping beams. We observe that clean beams, i.e. highly focused beams with unaberrated wavefronts, may be used to optimize the longitudinal frequencies, at the cost of the transversal ones. Our work is based in a combination of experimental studies using a complete basis of orthogonal polynomials (Zernike polynomials) to control the wavefront and a set of numerical calculations, which allow us to compare the impact of structured wavefronts on the quality of traps for optically levitated particles in vacuum. This will have direct applications in quantum sensing and fundamental studies of quantum mechanics, as it allows the reduction of optical backaction and thermal decoherence of the particles.
title Controlling the centre of mass motion of levitated particles using structured wavefronts
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.17654