Cold Damping of a Levitated Nanoparticle

Abstract

The interaction of light and matter gives rise to optical forces. A particularly impressive example is optical trapping of dielectric particles in strongly focused laser fields using the optical gradient force. This force pulls the particle to the region of largest field intensity. As a result, for small oscillation amplitudes around the trap center, the particle's center-of-mass motion can be regarded as a harmonic oscillator.