Decoherence Effect of Moving Surfaces Near an Optical Trap

The trap potential produced by an optical tweezer can be approximated to a simple harmonic potential about the focal point of the trap. An optically trapped nanoparticle in the ground state of this system can be used for ultrasensitive force detection, such as probing the weak gravitational field. By designing a density-modulated attractor mass as a cavity mirror and placing it at close proximity to the trapped nanoparticle provides us with a tool for probing the gravitational field at sub-micron ranges, by moving the attractor mass with respect to the trapped nanoparticle.As an undesirable consequence, the moving patch potentials leads to broadening of the energy levels of the harmonic trapping potential. An analysis was performed to obtain the mapping of electric fields produced and the subsequent decoherence on the harmonic oscillator levels.