Author Archives: drjmillen

I am very pleased to announce that I am the fortunate recipient of an ERC Starting Grant – LeviTeQ, to develop the levitated optomechanics system as a platform for understanding fundamental physics. I also received an EPSRC new Investigator Award … Continue reading →

Together with Jan Gieseler, I wrote a literature review of experiments where levitated nanoparticles are used to test thermodynamics on the nano-scale: Levitated Nanoparticles for Microscopic Thermodynamics—A Review J. Gieseler & J. Millen, Entropy 20, 326 (2018)

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve moved to King’s College London, as a Lecturer in Advanced Photonics. I will be continuing my research on rotational opto- and electro-mechanics.

New paper online! In this work, we propose a feasible experiment for measuring orientational revivals with a 50nm long cylinder. This is a purely quantum effect, arising from quantization of angular momentum, and interference of different orientations. arXiv:1803.01778

Every two years, I love to attend the Gordon Research Conference, “Mechanical systems in the quantum regime”, which brings together the biggest names in my field, with an encouragement to present breaking results. This year was particularly exciting for me, … Continue reading →

Here, we propose a new scheme, where levitated particles are coupled to, and controlled by, electrical circuits. To be built soon! Levitated electromechanics: all-electrical cooling of levitated nano- and micro-particles

Our work on detection of nanoparticles in Silicon microcavities has been published in Applied Physics Letters. This technology will be really important for controlling smaller nanoparticles, and in turn realising a quantum physics with massive objects.

You can find a free video & audio recording of my Optomechanics tutorial lecture from SPIE Optics + Photonics 2017, by clicking on the image below: You can site it in the following way: James Millen, “Tutorial on optomechanics (Conference … Continue reading →

It only took 308 days, but we just had some new research published in Nature Communications. It was a completely surprising piece of work; we were able to levitate a tiny silicon cylinder, and make it tick like the hands … Continue reading →

I was fortunate enough to be invited to give not one, but two lectures at this exciting, interdisciplinary meeting. I discussed working with nanoparticles in high vacuum, and also presented The Quantum Workshop, which the organisers had kindly shipped all … Continue reading →