Recent Progress with the KWISP Force Sensor

Understand

The KWISP opto-mechanical force sensor has been built and calibrated in the INFN Trieste optics laboratory and is now under off-beam commissioning at CAST.

• It is designed to detect the pressure exerted by a flux of solar Chameleons on a thin (100 nm) Si$_3$N$_4$ micromembrane thanks to their direct coupling to matter.
• A thermally-limited force sensitivity of $1.5 \cdot 10^{-14}~\mbox{N}/\sqrt{\mbox{Hz}}$, corresponding to $7.5 \cdot 10^{-16}~\mbox{m}/\sqrt{\mbox{Hz}}$ in terms of displacement, has been obtained.
• An originally developed prototype chameleon chopper has been used in combination with the KWISP force sensor to conduct preliminary searches for solar chamaleons.