An apparatus for trapping and sensing nanoparticles using plasmonic nanopores, comprising a conductive transparent layer, a conductive film layer mounted to a substrate, the film layer comprising a plurality of nanopores for trapping nanoparticles contained in a fluid situated between the conductive transparent layer and the conductive film layer, and an electric field source connected between the transparent layer and the film layer.

A temporally continuous matter wave beam splitter (14) comprising a plurality of intersecting and interfering laser beam (k.sub.r, k.sub.b), which act as waveguides for a matter wave beam. The laser beams of the waveguides each have a frequency detuned below a frequency of an internal atomic transition of the matter wave. The matter wave has a wavevector which is an integral multiple of the wavevector of the laser beams within a region of intersection of the laser beams. There is also provided an atomic interferometer (200) comprising such a continuous matter wave beam splitter, and a solid state device comprising such a continuous matter wave beam splitter, which may be part of an atomic interferometer. A cold atom gyroscope, a cold atom accelerometer or a cold atom gravimeter comprising such a solid state device are also provided. There is further provided a quantum computer comprising such a solid state device, wherein atoms of the matter wave beam are in an entangled quantum state. There is also provided a method of splitting a matter wave beam, comprising introducing the matter wave beam into a first temporally continuous laser beam, the frequency of which is detuned below a frequency of an internal atomic transition of the matter wave beam; intersecting and interfering the first continuous laser beam with a second temporally continuous laser beam, the frequency of which is also detuned below the frequency of the internal atomic transition of the matter wave beam; providing the matter wave beam with a wavevector which is an integral multiple of the wavevector of the first and second laser beams within a region of intersection of the laser beams, whereby the laser beams act as waveguides for the matter wave beam.

A reflector (15) for cooling or trapping atoms or molecules, the reflector (15) having a reflecting surface (17) forming a perimeter around and facing a central axis (33), the reflecting surface (17) extending along the axis (33), and converging from a first end of the reflector (15) towards a second end of the reflector (15), such that the reflecting surface (17) is arranged to reflect input laser light to form a cooling region (21), wherein an aperture (23) for providing a beam (27) of cooled atoms or molecules from the cooling region (21) is formed in the reflecting surface (17), the aperture (23) perpendicular to the central axis (33), such that the reflector (15) forms a truncated pyramid, and wherein the reflecting surface (17) is formed by three or more planar mirrors (39a-d) arranged around and at an angle to the central axis (33).

An atom interferometer device for inertial sensing includes one or more thermal atomic sources, a state preparation laser, a set of lasers, and a detection laser. The one or more thermal atomic sources provide one or more atomic beams. A state preparation laser is disposed to provide a state preparation laser beam nominally perpendicular to each of the one or more atomic beams. A set of lasers is disposed to provide interrogation laser beams that interrogate the one or more atomic beams to assist in generating atom interference. A detection laser is disposed to provide a detection laser beam, which is angled at a first angle to the each of the one or more atomic beams in order to enhance the dynamic range of the device by enabling velocity selectivity of atoms used in detecting the atom interference.

An exemplary communication or signaling system that includes an energy emission system that can include a control system, a fluid reservoir, fluid transfer structures, a fluid pumping system, an emission structure, an enclosure extending away from the fluid emission structure, a fluid recovery system, and a lens structure adapted to pass energy through the lens structure. The emission structure can include a porous structure and/or structure(s) with a number of fluid emission sections that generate one or more fluid structures such as droplets or other fluid shapes which increase or decrease fluid surface area on the fluid emission structure and thereby increase or decrease energy emissions or absorption on or in relation to the fluid emission structure. The control system can selectively modulate pressure/fluid transfer via the pump into the fluid transfer structures which alter energy emission or absorption that can be detected at a distance.

A two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D GMOT) that is configured to produce a cold-atom beam exiting the 2D GMOT is disclosed. In embodiments, the 2D GMOT is configured to feed a three-dimensional GMOT with the cold atom beam. In embodiments, the 2D GMOT includes an input light beam having its direction along a first axis, its width along a second axis, normal to the first axis, and a substantially flat input light beam intensity profile. 2D GMOT may further includes a quadrupole magnetic field with its magnitude being zero along a third axis that is centered at the center of the input light beam's width. The 2D GMOT may also include a diffraction-grating surface positioned normal to the first axis, composed of closely adjacent parallel grooves spread across the width and run parallel to the third axis.

A method for characterizing an interaction between a first particle and a second particle is provided. The method includes the steps of: (i) providing an optical trap system including a photonics-based trap, a light source, and a camera; (ii) optically trapping, using the photonics-based trap, the first particle; (iii) obtaining a first measurement of a trap stiffness of the photonics-based trap; (iv) introducing the second particle to the optically trapped particle; (v) incubating the first and second particles under conditions suitable for an interaction between the first and second particles; (vi) obtaining a second measurement of the trap stiffness of the photonics-based trap after the incubation; and (vii) determining, using the first measurement of trap stiffness and the second measurement of trap stiffness, a property of the interaction between the first particle and the second particle.

The present invention relates to a method for manipulating a tiny object, including: providing a charged particle beam; forming a non-uniform charge distribution in a fluid medium; and applying, to a tiny object, a gradient force formed by the non-uniform charge distribution. The present invention extends manipulation to a nanoscale, and can be applied to various microscopic tiny objects such as conductors, non-conductors, and living or non-living biological cells or organelles, and therefore surely promote great progress in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine.

An apparatus for generating vertically separated atom clouds. The apparatus comprises an optical system comprising an arrangement of lenses and optics. The optical system is configured to trap and cool atoms to form a cold atom cloud; select the hyperfine level of the atoms; trap atoms of the cold atom cloud in a standing wave optical lattice; and vertically split the cold atom cloud into a high cold atom cloud and a low cold atom cloud. The splitting comprises splitting the cold atom cloud into two clouds by launching atoms of the cold atom cloud in opposite directions to form a high cold atom cloud and a low cold atom cloud, and catching the low cold atom cloud up to reach the same velocity as the high cold atom cloud.

A holographic optical tweezers for manipulating a micro- or nano-size particle, the optical tweezers including a light source configured to emit first and second light beams; a light focusing apparatus configured to focus the first and second light beams to generate focused light beams, which create optical forces; and a trapping assembly configured to receive the first and second focused light beams and form a trap for holding the particle with the optical forces. The trapping assembly includes first and second micromirrors attached to a microscope coverslip.