Interference-enhanced light-matter interaction of an optically levitated dielectric particle

Abstract: Enhancing light-matter interaction is a central subject in quantum science. In this work, we investigate an interference-based approach to amplify the effect of a weak optical field on a nanoscale particle levitated in an optical tweezer. By interfering the weak signal field with the strong trapping field, we achieve a significant enhancement of the optical force caused by the weak field, compared to the force in the absence of interference. This enhanced interaction enables us to detect the weak field through monitoring the motion of the particle, with sensitivity down to 79 pW/Hz. We discuss the potential of this approach for realizing an ultrasensitive, nondestructive light field detector and for exploring optomechanical interactions at the single-photon level.