Fastest rotating man-made object created: To do this they manufactured a microscopic sphere of calcium carbonate only 4 millionths of a metre in diameter. The team then used the miniscule forces of laser light to hold the sphere with the radiation pressure of light...
They exploited the property of polarisation of the laser light that changed as the light passed through the levitating sphere, exerting a small twist or torque.
Placing the sphere in vacuum largely removed the drag (friction) due to any gas environment, allowing the team to achieve the very high rotation rates...
"I am intrigued with the prospect of extending this to multiple trapped particles and rotating systems. We may even be able to shed light on the area of quantum friction – that is – does quantum mechanics put the brakes on the motion or spinning particle even though we are in a near perfect vacuum with no other apparent sources of friction?"
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