Q.InC Achieves More Than 10 Hours of Free Spin with a Levitated Rotor

Q.InC has developed a millimetre-scale mechanical rotor that can levitate and spin freely for more than 10 hours at room temperature.

The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates a new approach to precision gyroscopes based on diamagnetic levitation. By levitating a graphite rotor above permanent magnets, we created a mechanical system that can rotate without physical contact and with exceptionally low energy dissipation.

This could support the development of highly stable gyroscopes for applications such as navigation in environments where GPS signals are unavailable or unreliable.

Spinning Without Contact

Diamagnetic levitation uses the magnetic properties of certain materials to suspend an object above a magnetic field. In this work, we used a graphite rotor that remains stably levitated above permanent magnets, eliminating mechanical contact between the rotor and its surroundings.

This contactless configuration significantly reduces friction. However, maintaining extremely low energy loss is challenging because the motion of the graphite can induce eddy currents, which are electrical currents generated within the material as it moves through a magnetic field. These currents dissipate energy and cause the rotor to slow down.

We found that this energy dissipation depends strongly on the type of motion. While the rotor’s non-rotational modes experience relatively higher energy loss, its rotational motion exhibits dramatically lower dissipation, by nearly five orders of magnitude.

By exploiting this low-dissipation rotational mode, we achieved a record-low dissipation rate of 3.85 μHz for a millimetre-scale mechanical rotor at room temperature.

Following the removal of the driving force, our rotor continued to spin freely for more than 10 hours.

From Free Spinning to Precision Gyroscopes

Beyond demonstrating exceptionally long spin times, we also showed that the levitated rotor has the potential to function as a precision gyroscope.

Gyroscopes measure changes in orientation and rotation. Because the rotor has a large angular momentum and experiences extremely low dissipation, small changes in its rotational state can be detected with high sensitivity. Our demonstrated system achieved an angular stability of 0.0065° per second, highlighting the potential of diamagnetically levitated mechanical systems for precision inertial sensing.

Highly stable gyroscopes could have applications in navigation and positioning, particularly in situations where conventional GPS-based navigation is unavailable or unreliable. Such technologies could be relevant to areas including aerospace, defence and precision measurement.

Advancing Q.InC’s Quantum Sensing Capabilities

This work brings together our multidisciplinary expertise in diamagnetic levitation, optomechanics, precision measurement, control engineering and inertial sensing.

We developed the experimental platform, control system, optical measurement setup and theoretical models within Q.InC, enabling us to investigate and control the behaviour of a levitated mechanical rotor from the ground up.

Importantly, our study identifies a new direction for diamagnetic levitation by showing that rotational motion can be significantly less dissipative than the rotor’s other mechanical modes. This provides a route towards room-temperature, high-performance inertial sensors while also expanding the possibilities of levitated mechanical systems for fundamental research.

Beyond gyroscopes, this low-dissipation platform could enable ultra-sensitive torque measurements and provide new opportunities to investigate quantum behaviour in increasingly large mechanical systems.

The findings contribute to our efforts to translate fundamental research in levitation-based quantum sensing into practical technologies, while continuing to explore the fundamental physics of increasingly sensitive and macroscopic mechanical systems.

Congratulations to Dr Xianfeng Chen, Nirmala Raj, Dr Ruvi Lecamwasam, Dr Mingxi Chen, Christina Yuan Ling Tan, Dr Syed Assad, and Prof Lam Ping Koy on the publication of their work in Nature Communications.

Read the full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75188-1