Optomechanics is concerned with the use of light to control mechanical objects. As a field, it has been hugely successful in the production of precise and novel sensors, the development of low-dissipation nanomechanical devices, and the manipulation of quantum signals. Micro- and nano-particles levitated in optical fields act as nanoscale oscillators, making them excellent low-dissipation optomechanical objects, with minimal thermal contact to the environment when operating in vacuum. Levitated optomechanics is seen as the most promising route for studying high-mass quantum physics, with the promise of creating macroscopically separated superposition states at masses of 106amu and above. Optical feedback, both using active monitoring or the passive interaction with an optical cavity, can be used to cool the centre-of-mass of levitated nanoparticles well below 1 mK, paving the way to operation in the quantum regime. In addition, trapped mesoscopic particles are the paradigmatic system for studying nanoscale stochastic processes, and have already demonstrated their utility in state-of-the-art force sensing.

中文翻译：

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悬浮粒子的光力学

光机械学涉及使用光来控制机械物体。作为一个领域，它在精密和新型传感器的生产、低耗散纳米机械器件的开发以及量子信号的操纵方面取得了巨大的成功。悬浮在光场中的微米和纳米粒子充当纳米级振荡器，使它们成为极好的低耗散光机械物体，在真空中操作时与环境的热接触最小。悬浮光力学被视为研究高质量量子物理学的最有前途的途径，有望在质量为 106amu 及以上的情况下产生宏观分离的叠加态。光反馈，无论是使用主动监测还是与光腔的被动交互，可用于将悬浮纳米粒子的质心冷却到远低于 1 mK，为在量子体系中运行铺平了道路。此外，被困细观粒子是研究纳米级随机过程的典型系统，并且已经证明了它们在最先进的力传感中的实用性。