Torque-free manipulation of nanoparticle rotations via embedded spins

Abstract

Spin angular momentum and mechanical rotation both contribute to the total angular momentum of rigid bodies, leading to spin-rotational coupling via the Einstein-de Haas and Barnett effects. Here we show that the revolutions of symmetric nanorotors can be strongly affected by a small number of intrinsic spins. The resulting dynamics are observable with freely rotating nanodiamonds with embedded nitrogen-vacancy centers and persist for realistically-shaped near-symmetric particles, opening the door to torque-free schemes to control their rotations at the quantum level.