  Near-field, radially symmetric optical potentials centred around a levitated
nanosphere can be used for sympathetic cooling and for creating a bound
nanosphere-atom system analogous to a large molecule. We demonstrate that the
long range, Coulomb-like potential produced by a single blue detuned field
increases the collisional cross-section by eight orders of magnitude, allowing
fast sympathetic cooling of a trapped nanosphere to microKelvin temperatures
using cold atoms. By using two optical fields to create a combination of
repulsive and attractive potentials, we demonstrate that a cold atom can be
bound to a nanosphere creating a new levitated hybrid quantum system suitable
for exploring quantum mechanics with massive particles.
