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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 1: Micro Mechanical Oscillator 1
Q 1.5: Talk
Monday, March 14, 2011, 11:30–11:45, HSZ 02
Optomechanical cooling close to the ground state — •Rémi Rivière1, Stefan Weis1,2, Samuel Deléglise1,2, Emanuel Gavartin2, Olivier Arcizet3, Albert Schliesser1,2, and Tobias Kippenberg1,2 — 1Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany — 2Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland — 3Institut Néel, 38042 Grenoble, France
Optomechanical cooling of a mechanical oscillator mediated by the radiation pressure of the light enables preparing a macroscopic system in its quantum ground state. In our experiment, the vehicle used is a silica microtoroid resonator, hosting both optical and mechanical degrees of freedom within the same device. Combining both cryogenic and optomechanical cooling, we demonstrate an occupancy as low as 9±1 phonons, for which limitations to further phonon occupation reduction are only technical. The forthcoming ground state will then enable the study of quantum effects in a macro-object.