OpTeC Colloquium: Dr. Brian D'Urso, Precision pulsed levitated optomechanics in a magneto-grav. trap

Abstract
Magneto-gravitational traps use the repulsion of diamagnetic particles by magnetic fields combined with the Earth's gravity to create a highly anisotropic and weak trapping potential. The result is stable trapping at all pressures with static fields alone, but low frequencies of oscillation seemingly make quantum behavior unreachable. We report on progress towards observing the quantum limit of the motion by optical measurements of the particle position on time scales short compared to the oscillation period of the motion, making the behavior approach that of a free particle.

Biography
Brian D'Urso received his B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 and his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 2003 as a Hertz Fellow. Dr. D’Urso has since been a member of the research staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh before joining the MSU physics department in 2017. He enjoys bicycling to MSU and hasn’t missed a day due to weather in the last two years.

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