Karl Franzens University Graz | Graz University of Technology | |
Levitated optomechanics with rotating nanoparticles Levitating nanoscale particles in a laser field and optically cooling them into the quantum regime offers an attractive route towards fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and ultra-sensitive sensors. As demonstrated recently, the interaction between the nanoparticle and the light field can be increased by using rod-shaped objects instead of spheres because the former tend to align with the field polarization [1-3]. In this talk I will present the quantum theory of nanorotors interacting with laser fields [4] and ambient environments [5] and argue that cooling the rotation of aspherical nanoparticles into the deep quantum regime opens the door for the observation of macroscopic orientational quantum revivals [6], a complete recurrence of its initial orientation after integer multiples of the revival time. |