Accurate Mass Measurement of a Levitated Nanomechanical Resonator for Precision Force-Sensing.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30888180.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b00082.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Nanomechanical resonators are widely operated as force and mass sensors with sensitivities in the zepto-Newton (10<sup>-21</sup>) and yocto-gram (10<sup>-24</sup>) regime, respectively. Their accuracy, however, is usually undermined by high uncertainties in the effective mass of the system, whose estimation is a nontrivial task. This critical issue can be addressed in levitodynamics, where the nanoresonator typically consists of a single silica nanoparticle of well-defined mass. Yet, current methods assess the mass of the levitated nanoparticles with uncertainties up to a few tens of percent, therefore preventing to achieve unprecedented sensing performances. Here, we present a novel measurement protocol that uses the electric field from a surrounding plate capacitor to directly drive a charged optically levitated particle in moderate vacuum. The developed technique estimates the mass within a statistical error below 1% and a systematic error of ∼2%, and paves the way toward more reliable sensing and metrology applications of levitodynamics systems.