Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Optimal control of levitated nanoparticles subjected to thermal fluctuations is a challenging problem, both theoretically and experimentally. In this Letter, we compute the time-dependent harmonic confining potential that steers, in a prescribed time and with the minimum energetic cost, a Brownian particle between two assigned equilibrium states. We take full account of inertial effects, thus addressing the general underdamped dynamics, and, to address actual experimental conditions, the stiffness of the confining potential is required to be bounded. We carry out an experiment realizing the described protocol for an optically confined nanoparticle, which is shown to reach the target state within accuracy-while spending less energy than other protocols with the same duration, significantly shorter than the characteristic relaxation time. The results presented here are expected to have relevant applications in the design of optimal devices, such as engines at the nanoscale.
Source: Physical Review Letters
DOI: 10.1103/pss4-b69w
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques, Institute for Complex Systems, Sapienza University of Rome, CentraleSupélec, Laboratoire Lumière, Matière et Interfaces, Universidad de Sevilla, The University of Adelaide, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1255122909, G1826204064, G2262748287, Optimal Protocols in stochastics thermodynamics with Levitated nAnoparticle, Renormalization group approach to the collective behaviour of strongly correlated biological systems, G3480869486, G3681454997, G4042783231, Far-from-Equilibrium NaNothermodynamics with Engineered Colored baths, G425668148, G5020422105, G586857820, G7084143925, G783660160
OpenAlex ID: W4413814824