Trapped ion in the Lamb-Dicke regime with the Lamb-Dicke parameter $η\ll1$ can be cooled down to its motional ground state using sideband cooling. Standard sideband cooling works in the weak sideband coupling limit, where the sideband coupling strength is small compared to the natural linewidth $γ$ of the internal excited state, with a cooling rate much less than $γ$. Here we consider cooling schemes in the strong sideband coupling regime, where the sideband coupling strength is comparable or even greater than $γ$. We derive analytic expressions for the cooling rate and the average occupation of the motional steady state in this regime, based on which we show that one can reach a cooling rate which is proportional to $γ$, while at the same time the steady state occupation increases by a correction term proportional to $η^{2}$ compared to the weak sideband coupling limit. We demonstrate with numerical simulations that our analytic expressions faithfully recover the exact dynamics in the strong sideband coupling regime.
Conventional theoretical studies on the ground-state laser cooling of a trapped ion have mostly focused on the weak sideband coupling (WSC) regime, where the cooling rate is inverse proportional to the linewidth of the excited state. In a recent work~[New J. Phys. 23, 023018 (2021)], we proposed a theoretical framework to study the ground state cooling of a trapped ion in the strong sideband coupling (SSC) regime, under the assumption of a vanishing carrier transition. Here we extend this analysis to more general situations with nonvanishing carrier transitions, where we show that by properly …
Resonance fluorescence of a single trapped ion is spectrally analyzed using a heterodyne technique. Motional sidebands due to the oscillation of the ion in the harmonic trap potential are observed in the fluorescence spectrum. From the width of the sidebands the cooling rate is obtained and found to be in agreement with the theoretical prediction.
We report a demonstration and quantitative characterization of one-dimensional cavity cooling of a single trapped 88Sr+ ion in the resolved sideband regime. We measure the spectrum of cavity transitions, the rates of cavity heating and cooling, and the steady-state cooling limit. The cavity cooling dynamics and cooling limit of 22.5(3) motional quanta, limited by the moderate coupling between the ion and the cavity, are consistent with a simple model [Phys. Rev. A 64, 033405] without any free parameters, validating the rate equation model for cavity cooling.
We explore how to cool atomic collective excitations in an optically-driven three-level atomic ensemble, which may be described by a model of coupled two harmonic oscillators (HOs) with a time-dependent coupling. Moreover, the coupled two-HO model is further generalized to address other cooling issues, where the lower-frequency HO can be cooled whenever the cooling process dominates over the heating one during the sideband transitions. Unusually, due to the absence of the heating process, the optimal cooling of our first cooling protocol for collective excitations in an atomic ensemble could b…
We study laser cooling of two ions that are trapped in a harmonic potential and interact by Coulomb repulsion. Sideband cooling in the Lamb-Dicke regime is shown to work analogously to sideband cooling of a single ion. Outside the Lamb-Dicke regime, the incommensurable frequencies of the two vibrational modes result in a quasi-continuous energy spectrum that significantly alters the cooling dynamics. The cooling time decreases nonlinearly with the linewidth of the cooling transition, and the effect of trapping states which may slow down the cooling is considerably reduced. We show that cooling…
Micro- and nanoscale opto-mechanical systems provide radiation pressure coupling of optical and mechanical degree of freedom and are actively pursued for their ability to explore quantum mechanical phenomena of macroscopic objects. Many of these investigations require preparation of the mechanical system in or close to its quantum ground state. Remarkable progress in ground state cooling has been achieved for trapped ions and atoms confined in optical lattices. Imperative to this progress has been the technique of resolved sideband cooling, which allows overcoming the inherent temperature limi…
We trap neutral Cs atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice and cool them close to the zero-point of motion by resolved-sideband Raman cooling. Sideband cooling occurs via transitions between the vibrational manifolds associated with a pair of magnetic sublevels and the required Raman coupling is provided by the lattice potential itself. We obtain mean vibrational excitations \bar{n}_x \approx \bar{n}_y \approx 0.01, corresponding to a population \sim 98% in the vibrational ground state. Atoms in the ground state of an optical lattice provide a new system in which to explore quantum state co…
We realise a phase-sensitive closed-loop control scheme to engineer the fluctuations of the pump field which drives an optomechanical system, and show that the corresponding cooling dynamics can be significantly improved. In particular, operating in the counter-intuitive "anti-squashing" regime of positive feedback and increased field fluctuations, sideband cooling of a nanomechanical membrane within an optical cavity can be improved by 7.5~dB with respect to the case without feedback. Close to the quantum regime of reduced thermal noise, such feedback-controlled light would allow going well b…
Resolved sideband cooling provides a crucial step in subrecoil cooling the trapped atoms toward their motional ground state, which is essential in atom-based quantum technologies. Here we present an enhanced dark-state sideband cooling in trapped atoms utilizing photon-mediated dipole-dipole interactions among them. By placing the atoms at the magic interparticle distances, we manifest an outperformed cooling behavior in the target atom, which surpasses the limit that a single atom permits. We further investigate various atomic configurations in a multiatom setup with a laser detuning and diff…
We have investigated the efficiency of pulsed Raman sideband cooling in the presence of multiple decay and excitation channels. By applying sum rules we identify parameter regimes in which multiple scattering of photons can be described by an effective wave vector. Using this method we determine the rate of heating caused by optical pumping inside and outside the Lamb-Dicke regime. On this basis we discuss also the efficiency of a recently proposed scheme for ground-state cooling outside the Lamb-Dicke regime [G. Morigi, J.I. Cirac, M. Lewenstein, and P. Zoller, Europhys. Lett. {\bf 39}, 13 (1…
A sideband cooling strategy that incorporates (i) the dynamics induced by structured (non-Markovian) environments in the target and auxiliary systems and (ii) the optimally-time-modulated interaction between them is developed. For the context of cavity optomechanics, when non-Markovian dynamics are considered in the target system, ground state cooling is reached at much faster rates and at much lower phonon occupation number than previously reported. In constrast to similar current strategies, ground state cooling is reached here for coupling-strength rates that are experimentally accesible fo…
We theoretically analyse the ground-state cooling of optically levitated nanosphere in unresolved- sideband regime by introducing a coupled high-quality-factor cavity. On account of the quantum interference stemming from the presence of the coupled cavity, the spectral density of the optical force exerting on the nanosphere gets changed and then the symmetry between the heating and the cooling processes is broken. Through adjusting the detuning of strong-dissipative cavity mode, one obtains an enhanced net cooling rate for the nanosphere. It is illustrated that the ground state cooling can be …
We discuss a laser cooling scheme for trapped atoms or ions which is based on double electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and makes use of a four-level atom in tripod configuration. The additional fourth atomic state is coupled by a strong coupling laser field to the usual three-level setup of single-EIT cooling. This effectively allows to create two EIT structures in the absorption spectrum of the system to be cooled, which may be controlled by the coupling laser field parameters to cancel both the carrier- and the blue-sideband excitations. In leading order of the Lamb-Dicke expans…
Cooling a mesoscopic mechanical oscillator to its quantum ground state is elementary for the preparation and control of low entropy quantum states of large scale objects. Here, we pre-cool a 70-MHz micromechanical silica oscillator to an occupancy below 200 quanta by thermalizing it with a 600-mK cold 3He gas. Two-level system induced damping via structural defect states is shown to be strongly reduced, and simultaneously serves as novel thermometry method to independently quantify excess heating due to the cooling laser. We demonstrate that dynamical backaction sideband cooling can reduce the…
We propose a cavity based laser cooling and trapping scheme, providing tight confinement and cooling to very low temperatures, without degradation at high particle densities. A bidirectionally pumped ring cavity builds up a resonantly enhanced optical standing wave which acts to confine polarizable particles in deep potential wells. The particle localization yields a coupling of the degenerate travelling wave modes via coherent photon redistribution. This induces a splitting of the cavity resonances with a high frequency component, that is tuned to the anti-Stokes Raman sideband of the particl…
The light scattered by a cold trapped ion, which is in the stationary state of laser cooling, presents features due to the mechanical effects of atom-photon interaction. These features appear as additional peaks (sidebands) in the spectrum of resonance fluorescence. Among these sidebands the literature has discussed the Stokes and anti-Stokes components, namely the sidebands of the elastic peak. In this manuscript we show that the motion also gives rise to sidebands of the inelastic peaks. These are not always visible, but, as we show, can be measured in parameter regimes which are experimenta…
Zeeman Degenerate Sideband Cooling in $^{176}$Lu$^+$
Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学量子科技中心）；Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学时亚实验室）；Department of Physics, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学物理系）
Cavity opto-mechanical cooling via radiation pressure dynamical backaction enables ground state cooling of mechanical oscillators, provided the laser exhibits sufficiently low phase noise. Here, we investigate and measure the excess phase noise of widely tunable external cavity diode lasers, which have been used in a range of recent nano-optomechanical experiments, including ground-state cooling. We report significant excess frequency noise, with peak values on the order of 10^7 rad^2 Hz near 3.5 GHz, attributed to the diode lasers' relaxation oscillations. The measurements reveal that even at…
We show that in the regime of ground-state cooling, simple expressions can be derived for the performance of resolved-sideband cooling --- an example of coherent feedback control --- and optimal linear measurement-based feedback cooling for a harmonic oscillator. These results are valid to leading order in the small parameters that define this regime. They provide insight into the origins of the limitations of coherent and measurement-based feedback for linear systems, and the relationship between them. These limitations are not fundamental bounds imposed by quantum mechanics, but are due to t…
We have recently demonstrated the laser cooling of a single $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ion to the motional ground state in a Penning trap using the resolved-sideband cooling technique on the electric quadrupole transition S$_{1/2} \leftrightarrow$ D$_{5/2}$. Here we report on the extension of this technique to small ion Coulomb crystals made of two or three $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ions. Efficient cooling of the axial motion is achieved outside the Lamb-Dicke regime on a two-ion string along the magnetic field axis as well as on two- and three-ion planar crystals. Complex sideband cooling sequences are required in or…
The present state-of-the-art in cooling mechanical resonators is a version of "sideband" cooling. Here we present a method that uses the same configuration as sideband cooling --- coupling the resonator to be cooled to a second microwave (or optical) auxiliary resonator --- but will cool significantly colder. This is achieved by varying the strength of the coupling between the two resonators over a time on the order of the period of the mechanical resonator. As part of our analysis, we also obtain a method for fast, high-fidelity quantum information-transfer between resonators.
The advent of laser cooling techniques revolutionized the study of many atomic-scale systems. This has fueled progress towards quantum computers by preparing trapped ions in their motional ground state, and generating new states of matter by achieving Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic vapors. Analogous cooling techniques provide a general and flexible method for preparing macroscopic objects in their motional ground state, bringing the powerful technology of micromechanics into the quantum regime. Cavity opto- or electro-mechanical systems achieve sideband cooling through the strong interac…
We consider a simple cavity optomechanics and study the ground-state cooling of mechanical resonator in the quantum regime. Using the effective master equations in the linear regime, the equations of motion can be obtained for the second order moments. The steady state solutions are derived in the case where the antiresonant terms are ignored. The final mean value of phonon number is compared to the case where the antiresonant terms are included. We find that the ground-state cooling in the last case is improved. Indeed, the inclusion of the antiresonant terms makes the system able to generate…
We propose a method for laser cooling group-II-like atoms without changing the quantum state of their nuclear spins, thus preserving coherences that are usually destroyed by optical pumping. As group-II-like atoms have a $^1S_0$ closed-shell ground state, nuclear spin and electronic degrees of freedom are decoupled, allowing for independent manipulation. The hyperfine interaction that couples these degrees of freedom in excited states can be suppressed through the application of external magnetic fields. Our protocol employs resolved-sideband cooling on the forbidden clock transition, $^1S_0 \…
Quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum impose an observable quantum limit to the lowest temperatures that can be reached with conventional laser cooling techniques. As laser cooling experiments continue to bring massive mechanical systems to unprecedented temperatures, this quantum limit takes on increasingly greater practical importance in the laboratory. Fortunately, vacuum fluctuations are not immutable, and can be "squeezed" through the generation of entangled photon pairs. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate that squeezed light can be used to sideband cool the motio…
We report a detailed investigation on near-ground state cooling of one and two trapped atomic ions. We introduce a simple sideband cooling method for confined atoms and ions, using RF radiation applied to bare ionic states in a static magnetic field gradient, and demonstrate its application to ions confined at secular trap frequencies, $ω_z \approx 2π\times 117 $kHz. For a single \ybplus ion, the sideband cooling cycle reduces the average phonon number, $\left\langle\,n\,\right\rangle$ from the Doppler limit to $\left\langle\,n\,\right\rangle =$ 0.30(12). This is in agreement with the theoreti…
Resolved sideband cooling is a standard technique for cooling trapped ions below the Doppler limit to near their motional ground state. Yet, the most common methods for sideband cooling implicitly rely on low Doppler-cooled temperatures and tightly confined ions, and they cannot be optimized for different experimental conditions. Here we introduce a framework which calculates the fastest possible pulsed sideband cooling sequence for a given number of pulses and set of experimental parameters, and we verify its improvement compared to traditional methods using a trapped $^{171}$Yb$^+$ ion. Afte…
Two techniques are described that simplify the experimental requirements for measuring and manipulating quantum information stored in trapped ions. The first is a new technique using electron shelving to measure the populations of the Zeeman sublevels of the ground state, in an ion for which no cycling transition exists from any of these sublevels. The second technique is laser cooling to the vibrational ground state, without the need for a trap operating in the Lamb-Dicke limit. This requires sideband cooling in a sub-recoil regime. We present a thorough analysis of sideband cooling on one or…
Optomechanical cavities in the well-resolved-sideband regime are ideally suited for the study of a myriad of quantum phenomena with mechanical systems, including backaction-evading measurements, mechanical squeezing, and generation of non-classical states. For these experiments, the mechanical oscillator should be prepared in its ground state; residual motion beyond the zero-point motion must be negligible. The requisite cooling of the mechanical motion can be achieved using the radiation pressure of light in the cavity by selectively driving the anti-Stokes optomechanical transition. To date,…
The efficiency of cavity sideband cooling of trapped molecules is theoretically investigated for the case where the IR transition between two rovibrational states is used as a cycling transition. The molecules are assumed to be trapped either by a radio-frequency or optical trapping potential, depending on whether they are charged or neutral, and confined inside a high-finesse optical resonator which enhances radiative emission into the cavity mode. Using realistic experimental parameters and COS as a representative molecular example, we show that in this setup cooling to the trap ground state…
Trapped ions are a promising candidate for large scale quantum computation. Several systems have been built in both academic and industrial settings to implement modestly-sized quantum algorithms. Efficient cooling of the motional degrees of freedom is a key requirement for high-fidelity quantum operations using trapped ions. Here, we present a technique whereby individual ions are used to cool individual motional modes in parallel, reducing the time required to bring an ion chain to its motional ground state. We demonstrate this technique experimentally and develop a model to understand the e…
We study one-dimensional sideband cooling of Cesium atoms strongly confined in a far-detuned optical lattice. The Lamb-Dicke regime is achieved in the lattice direction whereas the transverse confinement is much weaker. The employed sideband cooling method, first studied by Vuletic et al.\cite{Vule98}, uses Raman transitions between Zeeman levels and produces a spin-polarized sample. We present a detailed study of this cooling method and investigate the role of elastic collisions in the system. We accumulate $83(5)%$ of the atoms in the vibrational ground state of the strongly confined motion,…
We present a scheme for cooling mechanical motion to the ground state in an optomechanical system. Unlike standard sideband cooling, this scheme applies to the so-called unresolved sideband regime, where the resonance frequency of the mechanical mode is much smaller than the cavity linewidth. Ground state cooling becomes possible when assuming the presence of an additional, auxiliary mechanical mode and exploiting the effect of optomechanically induced transparency. We first consider a system where one optical cavity interacts with two mechanical modes, and show that ground state cooling of th…
Miniaturized ion trap arrays with many trap segments present a promising architecture for scalable quantum information processing. The miniaturization of segmented linear Paul traps allows partitioning the microtrap in different storage and processing zones. The individual position control of many ions - each of them carrying qubit information in its long-lived electronic levels - by the external trap control voltages is important for the implementation of next generation large-scale quantum algorithms. We present a novel scalable microchip multi-segmented ion trap with two different adjacent …
We report continuous Raman sideband cooling (CRSC) of a long ion chain to the motional ground state beyond the Lamb-Dicke (LD) regime. By driving multiple sideband transitions simultaneously, we show that nearly all axial modes of a 24-ion chain are cooled to the ground state, with an LD parameter as large as $η= 1.3$, spanning a frequency bandwidth of 4 MHz. Compared to traditional ground-state cooling methods such as pulsed sideband cooling or electromagnetic-induced-transparency (EIT) cooling, our method offers two key advantages: robustness to timing errors; and an ultra-wide bandwidth unl…
We present the results of simulations of optical sideband cooling of atomic ions in a trap with a shallow potential well. In such traps, an ion cannot be Doppler cooled near to the Lamb-Dicke regime ($η^2(2n+1) \ll 1$). Outside the Lamb-Dicke regime, the sideband cooling dynamics are altered by the existence of various Fock states where the cooling becomes very slow. A calcium ion trapped in our Penning trap realises such a situation, hence single stage cooling is inefficient to prepare the ion in the motional ground state. For these systems, it is necessary to study the cooling dynamics in de…
Cavity optomechanics provides a unique platform for controlling micromechanical systems by means of optical fields that crosses the classical-quantum boundary to achieve solid foundations for quantum technologies. Currently, optomechanical resonators have become promising candidates for the development of precisely controlled nano-motors, ultrasensitive sensors and robust quantum information processors. For all these applications, a crucial requirement is to cool the mechanical resonators down to their quantum ground states. In this paper, we present a novel cooling scheme to further cool a mi…
Cooling down a trapped ion into its motional ground state is a central step for trapped ions based quantum information processing. State of the art cooling schemes often work under a set of optimal cooling conditions derived analytically using a perturbative approach, in which the sideband coupling is assumed to be the weakest of all the relevant transitions. As a result the cooling rate is severely limited. Here we propose to use quantum control technique powered with automatic differentiation to speed up the classical cooling schemes. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by applying i…
We propose a method to create two-mode squeezed states and their superposition in the center-of-mass mode and breathing mode of two-trapped ions. Each ion is illuminated simultaneously by two standing waves. One of the fields is tuned to excite resonantly and simultaneously both upper sidebands of the two normal modes, while the other field tuned to the corresponding lower sidebands.
We investigate the influence of laser phase noise heating on resolved sideband cooling in the context of cooling the center-of-mass motion of a levitated nanoparticle in a high-finesse cavity. Although phase noise heating is not a fundamental physical constraint, the regime where it becomes the main limitation in Levitodynamics has so far been unexplored and hence embodies from this point forward the main obstacle in reaching the motional ground state of levitated mesoscopic objects with resolved sideband cooling. We reach minimal center-of-mass temperatures comparable to $T_{min}=10$mK at a p…
The ground state cooling of a mechanical oscillator in an optomechanical cavity containing an ensemble of identical two-level ground-state atoms is studied in the highly unresolved-sideband regime. The system exhibits electromagnetically-induced transparency-like quantum interference effect. The mutual interaction with the cavity optical field gives rise to an indirect coupling between the atomic and mechanical modes. In presence of this interaction, the noise spectrum gets modified and leads to asymmetric cooling and heating rates. Using the quantum master equation, time evolution of the aver…
The recently identified possibility of ground-state cooling of a mechanical oscillator in the unresolved sideband regime by combination of the dissipative and dispersive optomechanical coupling under the red sideband excitation [Phys. Rev. A 88, 023850 (2013)], is currently viewed as a remarkable finding. We present a comprehensive analysis of this protocol, which reveals its very high sensitivity to small imperfections such as an additional dissipation, the inaccuracy of the optimized experimental settings, and the inaccuracy of the theoretical framework adopted. The impact of these imperfect…
Single neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers and laser-coupled to Rydberg states provide a fast and flexible platform to generate configurable atomic arrays for quantum simulation. The platform is especially suited to study quantum spin systems in various geometries. However, for experiments requiring continuous trapping, inhomogeneous light shifts induced by the trapping potential and temperature broadening impose severe limitations. Here we show how Raman sideband cooling allows one to overcome those limitations, thus, preparing the stage for Rydberg dressing in tweezer arrays.
We demonstrate phase locking of two ultraviolet laser sources by modulating a fundamental infrared laser with 4th-order sidebands using an electro-optic modulator and phase locking of one sideband to a second fundamental infrared laser. Subsequent sum frequency generation and second harmonic generation successfully translates the frequency offset to the ultraviolet domain. The phase lock at 139 GHz is confirmed through stimulated Raman transitions for thermometry of $^9$Be$^+$ ions confined in a cryogenic Penning trap. This technique might be used for sideband cooling of single $^9$Be$^+$ ions…
In this paper we investigate cooling of a levitated nanosphere in a system of coupled cavities in the resolved sideband regime. Thanks to the presence of an extra resonance in the coupled cavity cooling system, the coupling strength can be maximized at the optimum detuning. In this fashion, the intra-cavity photon number is increased and thereby the cooling rate is enhanced and the strong coupling regime is achieved without resorting to increased driving laser power. The underlying physics of the increased cooling efficiency in the here-proposed system of coupled cavities in the resolved sideb…
A method of sideband Raman cooling to the vibrational ground state of the $m=0$ Zeeman sublevel in a far-detuned two-dimensional optical lattice is proposed. In our scheme, the Raman coupling between vibrational manifolds of the adjacent Zeeman sublevels is shifted to the red sideband due to the ac Stark effect induced by a weak pump field. Thus, cooling and optical pumping to $m=0$ is achieved by purely optical means with coplanar cw laser beams. The optical lattice and cooling parameters are estimated in the framework of simple theoretical models. An application of the transverse sideband co…
Collective enhancement in sideband cooling of ion crystals
Leibniz Universität Hannover（汉诺威莱布尼茨大学）；Universität Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学）；Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学与量子信息研究所）
Ground state cooling of micromechanical oscillator is a paradigmatic goal for observing quantum mechanical effects in cavity optomechanics. We study theoretically the ground state cooling of a mechanical oscillator in an optomechanical cavity in presence of a quantum well placed inside the cavity. Due to mode tailoring in presence of the quantum well, the cavity response gets modified and leads to asymmetric heating and cooling processes. This facilitates the cooling of the mechanical oscillator even in the unresolved-sideband regime, via inhibition of Stokes scattering.
Multimode optomechanical systems are an emerging platform for studying fundamental aspects of matter near the quantum ground state and are useful in sensitive sensing and measurement applications. We study optomechanical cooling in a system where two nearly degenerate mechanical oscillators are coupled to a single microwave cavity. Due to an optically mediated coupling the two oscillators hybridize into a bright mode with strong optomechanical cooling rate and a dark mode nearly decoupled from the system. We find that at high coupling, sideband cooling of the dark mode is strongly suppressed. …
In this paper, we present a dynamical decoupling (DD) technique to coherently control the dynamics of a single local phonon in trapped ions. A 2$π$ rotation at a motional sideband transition flips the sign of the relevant local phonon state, resulting in cancellation of the phonon dynamics. In this work, we implement DD using single and multiple blue-sideband pulses to control a single local phonon in two $^{40}{\rm Ca}^{+}$ ions in a linear Paul trap. Our proposed DD technique can be used to engineer coupling between local phonon modes.
Doppler and sideband cooling are long standing techniques that have been used together to prepare trapped atomic ions in their ground state of motion. In this paper we study how these techniques can be extended to cool both radial modes of motion of a single ion in a Penning trap. We numerically explore the prerequisite experimental parameters for efficient Doppler cooling in the presence of an additional oscillating electric field to resonantly couple the radial modes. The simulations are supported by experimental data for a single $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ion Doppler cooled to $\sim$100 phonons in both…
We study the nonlinear dynamics of trapped-ion models far away from the Lamb-Dicke regime. This nonlinearity induces a sideband cooling blockade, stopping the propagation of quantum information along the Hilbert space of the Jaynes-Cummings and quantum Rabi models. We compare the linear and nonlinear cases of these models in the ultrastrong and deep strong coupling regimes. Moreover, we propose a scheme that simulates the nonlinear quantum Rabi model in all coupling regimes. This can be done via off-resonant nonlinear red and blue sideband interactions, yielding applications as a dynamical qua…
We predict ground state cooling of a micro-mechanical oscillator, i.e. a vibrating end-mirror of an optical cavity, by resonant coupling of mirror vibrations to a narrow internal optical transition of an ensemble of two level systems. The particles represented by a collective mesoscopic spin model implement, together with the cavity, an efficient, frequency tailorable zero temperature loss channel which can be turned to a gain channel of pump. As opposed to the case of resolved-sideband cavity cooling requiring a small cavity linewidth, one can work here with low finesses and very small cavity…
Optomechanical cooling of levitated dielectric particles represents a promising new approach in the quest to cool small mechanical resonators towards their quantum ground state. We investigate two-mode cooling of levitated nanospheres in a self-trapping regime. We identify a rich structure of split sidebands (by a mechanism unrelated to usual strong-coupling effects) and strong cooling even when one mode is blue detuned. We show the best regimes occur when both optical fields cooperatively cool and trap the nanosphere, where cooling rates are over an order of magnitude faster compared to corre…
The observation of quantum phenomena in macroscopic mechanical oscillators has been a subject of interest since the inception of quantum mechanics. Prerequisite to this regime are both preparation of the mechanical oscillator at low phonon occupancy and a measurement sensitivity at the scale of the spread of the oscillator's ground state wavefunction. It has been widely perceived that the most promising approach to address these two challenges are electro nanomechanical systems. Here we approach for the first time the quantum regime with a mechanical oscillator of mesoscopic dimensions--discer…
