Free expansion of a charged nanoparticle via electrostatic compensation
- Author(s)
- David Steiner, Yaakov Y. Fein, Gregor Meier, Stefan Lindner, Paul Juschitz, Mario A. Ciampini, Markus Aspelmeyer, Nikolai Kiesel
- Abstract
Coherent wavepacket expansion is a key component of recent proposals aiming to create non-classical states of a levitated dielectric nanoparticle. Free evolution, i.e., releasing the particle from its harmonic trapping potential and allowing its position variance to grow, is a simple but effective expansion scheme, but requires accurate force compensation to avoid significant mean displacements of the wavepacket during the free evolution. Here, using an optical trap-release-recapture sequence, we demonstrate an electrostatic compensation technique that enables free evolution without significant mean displacement in 3D, effectively compensating both gravity and stray electric fields. To achieve 100 mu s free evolution times with charged particles, we developed methods to map and correct for force cross-talk, as well as to control the environmental charge state. Combined with a low decoherence environment, our approach enables the preparation of largely delocalized states without the need for long freefall trajectories or a low-gravity environment.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), University of Vienna
- Journal
- Applied Physics Letters
- Volume
- 127
- No. of pages
- 6
- ISSN
- 0003-6951
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2509.17503
- Publication date
- 11-2025
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103025 Quantum mechanics, 103021 Optics
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/6b0e79a3-1994-46e9-96d9-48217d5534b2