LAUSR

In just 20 years of history, the field of optomechanics has achieved impressive progress, stepping into the quantum regime just 5 years ago. Such remarkable advance relies on the technological revolution of nano-optomechanical systems, whose sensitivity towards thermal decoherence is strongly limited due to their ultra-low mass. Here we report a hybrid approach pushing nano-optomechanics to even lower scales. The concept relies on synthesising an efficient optical scatterer at the tip of singly clamped carbon nanotube resonators. We demonstrate high signal-to-noise motion readout and record force sensitivity, two orders of magnitude below the state of the art. Our work opens the perspective to extend quantum experiments and applications at room temperature.Optomechanics has recently moved into the quantum regime. Here, Tavernarakis et al. demonstrate that a hybrid optomechanical device made up of a carbon nanotube with a metal nanoparticle at its tip can push force measurements towards the quantum regime at room temperature.