University of Rochester researchers have measured for the first time light emitted by photoluminescence from a nanodiamond levitating in free space. The researchers used a laser to trap nanodiamonds in space and then, using another laser, caused the diamonds to emit light at given frequencies.
The experiment, led by Nick Vamivakas, an assistant professor of optics, demonstrates that it is possible to levitate diamonds as small as 100 nanometers in free space. "Now that we have shown we can levitate nanodiamonds and measure photoluminescence from defects inside the diamonds, we can start considering systems that could have applications in the field of quantum information and computing," said Vamivakas. An example of such a system would be an optomechanical resonator.
Transcript
00:00:06 The experiment we have here is based on optical forces, and this is the ability of light to push and pull on objects. This is a feature we do not typically attribute to light because it is not part of our common experience. What I mean by that is if we turn on a light or open a door and feel the sun, we do not feel this push or pull. It turns out, if you focus a laser down with a lens to a very small region of space like we are doing here, it can actually pull on microscopic and nanoscopic particles. Our experiment we are working with is 100 nanometer diameter. Diamond nanocrystals.
00:00:41 To give you some reference, this is about 100 to 1000 times smaller than the average diameter of a human hair. What we do is we spray them into our vacuum chamber here, and they are attracted to the region where the laser is focused down to the smallest spot. Our experiment is what we do is we levitate these diamond nanocrystals and we look at the light that comes back. Most people are familiar with diamonds, maybe from buying a diamond ring or diamond earrings. When we talk about the quality of conventional diamonds, there are the four Cs. There is color, cut, clarity, and karat, and from our perspective of our diamond nanocrystals, we like our crystals that are not very good from the perspective of color.
00:01:18 If you buy a diamond, you want it to be clear and very nice. Our diamonds, we like them to be in some sense colorful because this is the light that we measure that comes back. One of the reasons that we are interested in the research is that the position of the crystal in the trap is a very sensitive probe of forces in its environment, so friction is a force we are all familiar with, we walk and our sneakers feel friction with the road. Cars drive because of the friction between the tire and the street. What we do not understand is what happens when we shrink things down to very, very small scales, and how friction operates on objects. The reason this is important is because technology continues to shrink down to these length scales.
00:01:56 We need to understand how the environment will interact with the devices that we are making. A production of the University of Rochester. Please visit us online, and subscribe to our channel for more videos.
