Speaker
Description
Nanoparticles have emerged as a promising platform for performing macroscopic quantum experiments and probing the quantum-classical boundary. Recent advances in the field include the motional ground state cooling of gigadalton (GDa) mass silica nanoparticles [1] and the demonstration of matter-wave interferometry with >25 kDa molecules [2]. We aim to trap, image and cool nanoparticles in the 1-10 MDa mass range in preparation for conducting matter-wave interferometry experiments in a new regime with a quantum macroscopicity several orders of magnitude larger than the state of the art. These developments will open the door to study the internal complexity of a range of additional biological and special-purpose particles which may provide novel functionalities and advantages for quantum sensing techniques.
Particles in this mass range provide new challenges in loading, trapping, cooling and detection. We will present our current progress in the development and testing of a special-purpose ion trap and detection scheme utilising recent advancements in the area [3] and which we will integrate with an electrospray ionisation (ESI) ion source. This loading scheme will allow us to quickly change the ions being studied and has been demonstrated to facilitate fragment-free ionisation of complex high-mass molecules [4, 5].
[1] U. Delić, M. Reisenbauer, K. Dare, D. Grass, V. Vuletić, N. Kiesel and M. Aspelmeyer, Cooling of a levitated nanoparticle to the motional quantum ground state, Science, 2020, 367, 892-895.
[2] Y. Y. Fein, P. Geyer, P. Zwick, F. Kiałka, S. Pedalino, M. Mayor, S. Gerlich and M. Arndt, Quantum superposition of molecules beyond 25 kDa, Nat. Phys., 2019, 15, 1242-1245.
[3] D. S. Bykov, L. Dania, F. Goschin and T. E. Northup, 3D sympathetic cooling and detection of levitated nanoparticles, Optica, 2023, 10, 438-442.
[4] K. Geistlinger, F. Dahlmann, T. Michaelsen, M. Ončák, E. Endres and R. Wester, Multiple helium tagging and OH vibrational spectroscopy of cold protonated glycine ions, J. Mol. Spectrosc., 2021, 379, 111479.
[5] C. Sprenger, S. J. M. White, M. Westermeier, F. Dahlmann, M. Ončák, E. S. Endres and R. Wester, UV spectroscopy of [dAMP$-$H]$^-$ at 3 K, (in preparation).
