Optically Trapped Microspheres as Sensors of Mass and Sound

Brownian Motion as Both Signal and Noise
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-3-031-44331-2
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland

Buch, Englisch, 115 Seiten, HC runder Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 371 g

Reihe: Springer Theses

This thesis makes significant advances in the use of microspheres in optical traps as highly precise sensing platforms. While optically trapped microspheres have recently proven their dominance in aqueous and vacuum environments, achieving state-of-the-art measurements of miniscule forces and torques, their sensitivity to perturbations in air has remained relatively unexplored. This thesis shows that, by uniquely operating in air and measuring its thermally-fluctuating instantaneous velocity, an optically trapped microsphere is an ultra-sensitive probe of both mass and sound. The mass of the microsphere is determined with similar accuracy to competitive methods but in a fraction of the measurement time and all while maintaining thermal equilibrium, unlike alternative methods. As an acoustic transducer, the air-based microsphere is uniquely sensitive to the velocity of sound, as opposed to the pressure measured by a traditional microphone. By comparison to state-of-the-art commercially-available velocity and pressure sensors, including the world’s smallest measurement microphone, the microsphere sensing modality is shown to be both accurate and to have superior sensitivity at high frequencies. Applications for such high-frequency acoustic sensing include dosage monitoring in proton therapy for cancer and event discrimination in bubble chamber searches for dark matter. In addition to reporting these scientific results, the thesis is pedagogically organized to present the relevant history, theory, and technology in a straightforward way.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hillberry, Logan Edward

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technische Optik, Lasertechnologie
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Elektromagnetismus Quantenoptik, Nichtlineare Optik, Laserphysik
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Mess- und Automatisierungstechnik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Mechanik Akustik, Schwingungsanalyse
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Theoretische Physik, Mathematische Physik, Computerphysik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Technical Background.- Chapter 3. Experimental set-up.- Chapter 4. Results.- Chapter 5. Conclusions.

Über Autor(innen)

Logan completed his PhD in physics at the University of Texas at Austin in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Mark Raizen. Now, Logan continues to work as a postdoctoral fellow in the same group while coordinating his next position. Previously, he earned an MS in applied physics, under the supervision of Professor Lincoln Carr, and a BS in engineering physics from the Colorado School of Mines.  Logan has broad research interests ranging from acoustics to quantum many-body dynamics. He particularly enjoys numerics for simulation and data analysis, and building instruments to make new measurements.