Levitated optomechanics
Nuclear recoil, measured with particles suspended in light.
We’re exploring how the motion of a tiny trapped particle can reveal the momentum carried away in nuclear decay—even by particles we cannot otherwise see.
The science & our approach · Progress & further reading
Apparatus photo: Yale Wright Laboratory. Image source.
What a tiny kick can tell us
A focused laser can hold a microscopic particle in vacuum while its motion is measured with light. When a radioactive nucleus inside it decays, escaping particles carry away momentum and the trapped particle recoils.
Searching for invisible particles
Daniel Carney, David Moore and I proposed using nanoscale mechanical sensors to search for heavy neutrinos. The idea is to reconstruct the momentum carried away in each decay, including by particles that escape conventional detectors.
Other emitted particles must also be measured or accounted for. Reaching the light neutrino masses would require substantial improvements in sensitivity beyond the apparatus demonstrated so far.
A different way to read nuclear decay
In BeEST and SALER, we use superconducting sensors to measure deposited energy. Optomechanics offers a complementary measurement: the mechanical impulse delivered to a trapped particle.
From an idea to a measurement
In 2024, David Moore’s team at Yale detected individual alpha decays through the recoil of optically levitated microparticles. Their 2026 study linked individual changes in a sphere’s electric charge to emitted radiation measured in a nearby detector.
These are important steps toward neutrino-sensitive experiments. We aim to bring rare-isotope preparation together with optical trapping, precision readout and measurements of the other particles emitted in a decay.
Further reading
Searches for Massive Neutrinos with Mechanical Quantum Sensors
Daniel Carney, Kyle G. Leach & David C. Moore · PRX Quantum 4, 010315 (2023)
The neutrino-search concept that motivates our work in this area.
Mechanical Detection of Nuclear Decays
Jiaxiang Wang et al. · Physical Review Letters 133, 023602 (2024)
Mechanical detection of individual alpha decays at Yale.
Decay-Resolved Charge Changes from Radioactive Decays in Levitated Microparticles
Jiaxiang Wang et al. · Physical Review C 114, 034602 (2026)
Charge and radiation measured together, one decay at a time.