Material analysis of nanoparticles based on their laser trapping in vacuum

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K13857
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Atomic/Molecular/Quantum electronics
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Aikawa Kiyotaka 東京工業大学, 理学院, 准教授 (10759450)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: ナノ粒子 / オプトメカニクス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We built an experimental apparatus that can trap a few nanoparticles in an optical lattice in vacuum and observe their motion precisely. We showed that nanoparticles made of various materials can be trapped at atmospheric pressure and those made of a few materials, apart from silica used in previous studies, can even be stably trapped in vacuum. Furthermore, we showed that the oscillation frequency in vacuum depends on materials and demonstrated the principle of the non-destructive constitution analysis of nanoparticles. As an unexpected result, we discovered that two nanoparticles in a single optical lattice continuously orbit around each other even at atmospheric pressure and found that this phenomenon has properties significantly differing from known oscillation phenomena based on the radiation pressure.

Free Research Field

量子光学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究により、真空中におけるナノ粒子の運動の観測を通じてその材質を非破壊に推定する、という非破壊組成分析の原理が実証できたため、環境中を漂うナノ粒子に対する新たな角度からの分析が可能となると期待される。また、2個のナノ粒子による軌道運動の周波数は粒子の質量に非常に敏感であることから、粒子に気体分子が吸着される過程についての研究を進めることで、将来的には新しいタイプの気体検出センサーとしての応用が期待される。