Recoil-heating modulation in levitated optomechanics through optical wavefront shaping
Abstract
Optical levitation relies on light forces to trap mesoscopic objects in a vacuum and assemble pristine oscillators, whose mechanical properties are commonly tamed through laserintensity modulation—e.g., to provide leverage over the stiffness or engineer quantum states. When approaching the quantum regime at low pressure, the oscillator’s dynamics is governed by recoil heating, which stems from the backaction of scattered photons and whose control is highly desirable. Here, we demonstrate that spatial degrees of freedom accessible within the trapping-light field can be harnessed to modulate recoil heating. Specifically, we introduce an optimization routine that spatially shapes the optical field’s wavefront to either maximize or minimize the recoil-heating rate independently of other parameters like the mechanical stiffness. Importantly, this approach can serve to devise sequences of patterns providing smooth and deep modulations. Implementable into common experimental setups, this work leads the way to the dynamic modulation of optomechanical coupling in optical levitation.
Related
- Quantum theory of laser noise in coherent-scattering levitated optomechanics
- Energy-focused illumination via phase-only wavefront modulation for computational imaging
- Explanation of the Observed Energy Exchange through the vacuum in Optomechanics
- Strong Nanomechanical Duffing Nonlinearity and Interactions Induced through Cavity Optomechanics.
- Nonlocal wavefront shaping through complex media
BibTeX
@misc{marot2026recoilheating,
title = {{Recoil-heating modulation in levitated optomechanics through optical wavefront shaping}},
author = {Hugo Marot and Joel Love Nanfack and Murad Abuzarli and Yann Louyer and Mathias Perrin and Nicolas Bachelard},
howpublished = {HAL},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.07235},
eprint = {2610.07235},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05797800v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Recoil-heating modulation in levitated optomechanics through optical wavefront shaping
AU - Hugo Marot
AU - Joel Love Nanfack
AU - Murad Abuzarli
AU - Yann Louyer
AU - Mathias Perrin
AU - Nicolas Bachelard
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
PB - HAL
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.07235
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05797800v1
AB - Optical levitation relies on light forces to trap mesoscopic objects in a vacuum and assemble pristine oscillators, whose mechanical properties are commonly tamed through laserintensity modulation—e.g., to provide leverage over the stiffness or engineer quantum states. When approaching the quantum regime at low pressure, the oscillator’s dynamics is governed by recoil heating, which stems from the backaction of scattered photons and whose control is highly desirable. Here, we demonstrate that spatial degrees of freedom accessible within the trapping-light field can be harnessed to modulate recoil heating. Specifically, we introduce an optimization routine that spatially shapes the optical field’s wavefront to either maximize or minimize the recoil-heating rate independently of other parameters like the mechanical stiffness. Importantly, this approach can serve to devise sequences of patterns providing smooth and deep modulations. Implementable into common experimental setups, this work leads the way to the dynamic modulation of optomechanical coupling in optical levitation.
ER -