Levitation: A Glowing, Nanoscale Diamond
Monday, August 12, 2013 - 18:20
in Physics & Chemistry
Researchers have measured light emitted by photoluminescence from a nanodiamond levitating in free space. Their paper describes how they used a laser to trap nanodiamonds in space, and – using another laser – caused the diamonds to emit light at given frequencies. The experiment, led by Nick Vamivakas, an assistant professor of optics at the University of Rochester, demonstrates that it is possible to levitate diamonds as small as 100 nanometers (approximately one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair) in free space, by using a technique known as laser trapping. Specifically, nitrogen vacancy (NV) photoluminescence (PL) from a nanodiamond suspended in a free-space optical dipole trap. read more