AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Optical Levitation of a Nanodiamond and Its Applications in Sensing
Thai Hoang, Jonghoon Ahn, Jaehoon Bang, TONGCANG LI, Purdue University
Abstract Number: 49 Working Group: Single Aerosol Particle Studies - Fundamentals
Abstract An optically levitated aerosol nanoparticle can be characterized with great details in-situ and provides a powerful tool for probing local environment. Meanwhile, electron spins of diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are important quantum resources for nanoscale sensing and quantum information. Here we optically levitate a nanodiamond and demonstrate electron spin control of its built-in NV centers in different gases and in low vacuum. We demonstrate that NV spins in a levitated nanodiamond can be used to measure the local temperature and magnetic field. We also observe that oxygen and helium gases have different effects on both the photoluminescence and the contrast of the electron spin resonance of nanodiamond NV centers, indicating potential applications of nanodiamonds in oxygen gas sensing. Our results also pave the way towards a novel levitated spin-optomechanical system for studying macroscopic quantum mechanics.