Trapping and manipulation of individual nanoparticles in a planar Paul trap

Abstract

Visualisation and manipulation of nanoscale matter is one of the main and current challenges in nanosciences. To this aim, different techniques have been recently developed to non-invasively trap and manipulate nano-specimens, like nanoparticles or molecules. However, operating in air or vacuum still remains very challenging since most approaches are limited to a liquid environment. In this letter, we design and characterise a planar Paul trap optimised to trap and manipulate individual charged nanoparticles. This configuration offers competitive capabilities to manipulate nano-specimens in air or vacuum, including in-plane integration, high trap confinement along with dynamical trap reconfiguration, pointing towards applications in the field of levitated optomechanics.