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Optically trapped microspheres as sensors of mass and sound : Brownian motion as both signal and noise / Logan Edward Hillberry.

9783031443329 (electronic bk.)
3031443322 (electronic bk.)
9783031443312

Cham : Springer, 2023.

English

1 online resource (xvi, 115 pages) : illustrations (some color).

10.1007/978-3-031-44332-9 doi

QC184

539.7/7

This thesis makes significant advances in the use of microspheres in optical traps as highly precise sensing platforms. While optically trapped microspheres have recently proven their dominance in aqueous and vacuum environments, achieving state-of-the-art measurements of miniscule forces and torques, their sensitivity to perturbations in air has remained relatively unexplored. This thesis shows that, by uniquely operating in air and measuring its thermally-fluctuating instantaneous velocity, an optically trapped microsphere is an ultra-sensitive probe of both mass and sound. The mass of the microsphere is determined with similar accuracy to competitive methods but in a fraction of the measurement time and all while maintaining thermal equilibrium, unlike alternative methods. As an acoustic transducer, the air-based microsphere is uniquely sensitive to the velocity of sound, as opposed to the pressure measured by a traditional microphone. By comparison to state-of-the-art commercially-available velocity and pressure sensors, including the world⁰́b9s smallest measurement microphone, the microsphere sensing modality is shown to be both accurate and to have superior sensitivity at high frequencies. Applications for such high-frequency acoustic sensing include dosage monitoring in proton therapy for cancer and event discrimination in bubble chamber searches for dark matter. In addition to reporting these scientific results, the thesis is pedagogically organized to present the relevant history, theory, and technology in a straightforward way.

"Doctoral thesis accepted by the University of Texas at Austin, USA."

Includes bibliographical references.

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Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed November 21, 2023).

Springer theses, 2190-5061

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