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Measuring and Imaging Nanomechanical Motion with Laser Light

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Exploring the World with the Laser

Abstract

We discuss several techniques based on laser-driven interferometers and cavities to measure nanomechanical motion. With increasing complexity, they achieve sensitivities reaching from thermal displacement amplitudes, typically at the picometer scale, all the way to the quantum regime, in which radiation pressure induces motion correlated with the quantum fluctuations of the probing light. We show that an imaging modality is readily provided by scanning laser interferometry, reaching a sensitivity on the order of \( 10\kern0.166667em \mathrm{fm}/{\mathrm{Hz}}^{1/2} \), and a transverse resolution down to \( 2\kern0.166667em \upmu \mathrm{m} \). We compare this approach with a less versatile, but faster (single-shot) dark-field imaging technique.

This article is part of the topical collection “Enlightening the World with the Laser” - Honoring T. W. Hänsch guest edited by Tilman Esslinger, Nathalie Picqué, and Thomas Udem.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge our (former and present) colleagues Georg Anetsberger, Olivier Arcizet, Tobias Kippenberg, Jörg H. Müller, Eugene S. Polzik, Andreas Næsby Rasmussen, Remi Rivière, Anders Simonsen, Koji Usami, Stefan Weis, and Dalziel J. Wilson for their contributions to the work discussed here. Financial support came from the ERC starting grant Q-CEOM, a starting grant from the Danish Council for Independent Research, the EU FP7 grant iQUOEMS, and the Carlsberg Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Andreas Barg, Yeghishe Tsaturyan, Erik Belhage, William H. P. Nielsen, Christoffer B. Møller & Albert Schliesser

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  1. Andreas Barg
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  2. Yeghishe Tsaturyan
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  3. Erik Belhage
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  4. William H. P. Nielsen
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  5. Christoffer B. Møller
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Correspondence to Albert Schliesser .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Applied Physics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Dieter Meschede

  2. Max-Planck-Institute for Quantenoptik (MPQ), Garching, Germany

    Thomas Udem

  3. Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Tilman Esslinger

Additional information

This article is dedicated to Theodor W. Hänsch on the occasion of his 75 th $$ 75\mathrm{th} $$ birthday. Fortunate enough to have several chances to work with him, I could learn about his unique approach to experimental science. The first bit came right during my interview for a PhD position: When somebody claimed that all simple interesting things had already been done, he insisted that great experiments do not have to be complicated—if they are clever. It felt wise already then, now I know (better) how true it is. And I’m looking forward to seeing more clever experiments emerge from the Munich laboratories. Happy Birthday!

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Barg, A., Tsaturyan, Y., Belhage, E., Nielsen, W.H.P., Møller, C.B., Schliesser, A. (2018). Measuring and Imaging Nanomechanical Motion with Laser Light. In: Meschede, D., Udem, T., Esslinger, T. (eds) Exploring the World with the Laser. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64346-5_6

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