United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Utah State University

USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Brian L Kasch

Matthew Squires

Maxwell D Gregoire

Sean Krzyzewski

Eric A Imhof

Matthew Bigelow

Benjamin K Watson

David Hostutler

Mary Spanjers

Rudolph N Kohn, Jr

Spencer Olson

Daniel R Blakley

James A Stickney

Estevan Nunez

Cole Yarbrough

Charles W Lewandowski

An accelerometer includes a vacuum chamber to receive one or more pairs of laser beams and a nanoparticle. Each laser beam includes an axis and a focus having three dimensions. The nanoparticle is trapped in an oscillating state in a substantially overlapping three-dimensional foci of the one or more pairs of laser beams. A processor calculates an acceleration of the nanoparticle based on changes in position of the oscillating nanoparticle. At least one photodetector identifies spatial coordinates of the oscillating nanoparticle. The at least one photodetector includes a plurality of photodetectors that are aligned to sense interference between light from a first laser beam and light from the first laser beam that is scattered by the oscillating nanoparticle. The one or more pairs of laser beams may be collinear. The one or more pairs of laser beams may be configured to point at each other.

Optically levitated nanoparticle accelerometer

A piezoelectric rotary optical mount including a clamp including a first hole to hold a hollow member, wherein a contact between the clamp and the hollow member generates a coefficient of friction; a bias element adjacent to the first hole to apply a force to control rotational movement of the hollow member by adjusting the coefficient of friction; and a piezoelectric element to actuate the bias element to apply the force. The clamp may include a housing body including a first end and a second end, wherein the first hole extends in a first axis through the housing body to accommodate the hollow member; a pair of elongated cutout regions extending from the first hole towards the second end to define the bias element; and a second hole adjacent to at least one of the cutout regions to accommodate the piezoelectric element.

Piezoelectric rotary optical mount

An accelerometer includes a vacuum chamber to receive a laser beam and a nanoparticle. The nanoparticle is trapped in an oscillating state in a focus of the laser beam. A processor calculates an acceleration of the nanoparticle based on changes in position of an oscillating nanoparticle. A plurality of photodetectors are spaced apart to identify spatial coordinates of the oscillating nanoparticle. The processor may calculate the acceleration of the nanoparticle based on changes in the spatial coordinates of the oscillating nanoparticle and a frequency of oscillation of the nanoparticle within the vacuum chamber. The nanoparticle may have a diameter of a predetermined size and is trapped in the focus of the laser beam based on a polarizability of the nanoparticle. The diameter of the predetermined size of the nanoparticle may be smaller than a wavelength of the laser beam.

A system includes a vacuum chamber to receive a laser beam and a charged nanoparticle. The nanoparticle oscillates at a trapping frequency in a focus of the laser beam. Resonant oscillation of the nanoparticle is driven by a presence of an ambient electric field adjacent to the vacuum chamber. The system also includes a controller to tune the trapping frequency of an oscillating nanoparticle to be in resonance with the ambient electric field causing on-resonant enhancement of the system; a detector to detect positional changes of the oscillating nanoparticle; and a processor to calculate an electromagnetic force of the ambient electric field based on the positional changes of the oscillating nanoparticle.

Levitated charged nanoparticles as a radio frequency transducer

An alkali-metal dispenser to dispense highly pure rubidium in a high-vacuum environment while not negatively impacting the high-vacuum pressure level. The alkali-metal dispenser is operable in various vapor-deposition applications or to provide a highly pure elemental-alkali metal in cold-atom magneto-optical traps.

Elemental alkali-metal dispenser

A method and system for algebraically generating precise magnetic potentials along the axis of a cold atom waveguide. Sets of paired conductors may provide control over the even and odd contributions of the polynomial potential along one axis of the trap. Various field configurations can be realized, including double wells, triple wells, and filtered harmonic traps with suppression of higher order terms. An example of a system disclosed herein may be a suitable dual-layer atom chip, with modest experimental requirements, that allows independent tuning of terms up to fourth order.

System and method for creating a predetermined magnetic potential

Growing community of inventors

Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Brian L Kasch