Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have used electron spin inside a diamond to drive the motion of a centimeter-scale (roughly 0.4-inch-scale) levitating device. Published in Science Advances, the experiment offers a new way to explore quantum effects in objects massive enough to matter in future investigations of gravity.
Quantum mechanics already makes lasers, MRI scanners, semiconductors, and quantum computers possible. But testing its stranger predictions in larger objects is difficult because heat, vibration, and other environmental disturbances can overwhelm delicate quantum behavior.
“There have been many efforts to test whether quantum mechanics holds for anything larger than a few tens of nanometers, so far without success. Now, we have observed a classical mechanical response to a quantum force on an object that is eight to nine orders of magnitude more massive than the current state-of-the-art spin-mechanical experiments,” said Professor Jason Twamley of OIST’s Quantum Machines Unit.
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