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Poster Session

Poster Session II

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm, Wednesday June 18 Session H00 Oregon Convention Center, Exhibit Hall E
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Optical Trapping of Microdisks for Detection of Gravitational Waves

Poster 156
Presenter: Shelby Klomp (Northwestern University)
Authors: George Winstone (Northwestern University), Zhiyuan Wang (Northwestern University), Shafaq Elahi (Northwestern University), Shaun Liang (Swansea University), Lars Forberger (University of Washington), Andrew Dana (Northwestern University), Alexey Grinin (Northwestern University), Andrew Laeuger (Caltech), Jacob Sprague (Northwestern University), James Bateman (Swansea University), Peter Pauzauskie (University of Washington), Nancy Aggarwal (UCDavis), Shane Larson (Northwestern University), Vicky Kalogera (Northwestern University), Andrew Geraci (Northwestern University)
Collaboration: LSD Collaboration

We present an update on the Levitated Sensor Detector (LSD) project for detection of high frequency (10-100kHz) gravitational waves above the region previously probed by LIGO. Motivated sources of gravitational waves in this frequency range include superradiance from QCD axion clouds around spinning black holes. The experiment will make use of optically levitated flat dielectric micro-scale particles as force sensors with the advantage of reduced photon recoil heating. We therefore discuss initial experimental trapping and cooling results of high-aspect-ratio NaYF4 hexagonal prisms. Additionally, we present information radiation patterns (IRPs) calculated from numerical simulations of light scattering for various shapes and sizes of particles, including hexagonal prisms, which are used to make improvements to position detection schemes in our levitated particle systems. Finally, we examine the experimental progress of the 1-meter LSD prototype that is in construction at Northwestern University.

Funding acknowledgement

This work was partially supported by the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Office of Naval Research grant no.417315//N00014-18-1-2370, the National Science Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

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