Roto-translational levitated optomechanics

Year: 2026

Authors: Rademacher M., Pontin A., Gosling J.M.H., Barker P.F., Toros M.

Autors Affiliation: UCL, Dept Phys & Astron, London WC1E 6BT, England; CNR INO, Largo Enr Fermi 6, I-50125 Florence, Italy; Univ Ljubljana, Fac Math & Phys, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Abstract: Levitated optomechanics, the interaction between light and small levitated objects, is a research platform that is being used as a testing ground for fundamental physics and for the development of sensors with exquisite sensitivity. The distinct advantage of this system, when compared to other quantum optomechanical systems, is its extreme isolation from the environment and, by the relatively few degrees of freedom that a levitated object has. While work in the field has strongly focused on the three translational degrees of freedom of this system, it has become increasingly important to understand the induced rotational motion of levitated objects, particularly in optical trapping fields, but also in magnetic and electric traps. These additional three degrees of freedom, which are intrinsic to levitated systems, offer a new set of optomechanical nonlinear interactions that lead to a rich and yet largely unexplored roto-translational motion. The control and utilization of these interactions promise to extend the utility of levitated optomechanics in both fundamental studies and applications. In this review, we provide a brief overview of levitated optomechanics, before focusing on the roto-translational motion of optically levitated anisotropic objects. We first present a classical treatment of this induced motion, bridging the gap between classical and quantum formalisms. We describe the different types of roto-translational motion for different particle shapes via their interaction with polarized optical trapping fields. Subsequently, we provide an overview of the theoretical and experimental approaches as well as applications that have established this new field. The review concludes with an outlook of promising experiments and applications as well as the outstanding theoretical and experimental challenges that must be overcome to meet them. This includes the creation of non-classical states of roto-translational motion, quantum-limited torque sensing and particle characterization methods. (c) 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Journal/Review: PHYSICS REPORTS-REVIEW SECTION OF PHYSICS LETTERS

Volume: 1187      Pages from: 1  to: 66

More Information: We would like to thank Julian H. Iacoponi for comments and discussions. MT acknowledges funding from the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) under contracts N1-0392, P1-0416, SN-ZRD/22-27/0510 (RSUL Toros) . MR acknowledges support by the Wellcome Trust Early-Career Award 331016/Z/25/Z. AP, MR, JMHG and PFB acknowledge funding from the United Kingdom’s EPSRC and STFC, United Kingdom via Grant Nos. EP/N031105/1, EP/S000267/1, EP/W029626/1, EP/S021582/1 and ST/W006170/1.
KeyWords: Levitated optomechanics; Roto-translational motion; Rotational dynamics; Translational dynamics; Optical levitation; Magnetic levitation; Electric levitation; Optical tweezers; Nanoparticle trapping; Feedback cooling; Parametric feedback; Coherent scattering; Quantum optomechanics; Torque sensing; Force sensing; Inertial sensing; Gravitational sensing; Pressure sensing; Magnetometry; Electrometry; Ground-state cooling; Strong coupling regime; Non-classical states; Entanglement; NV centers; Quantum sensing; Particle characterization; Hybrid levitation systems
DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2026.05.003