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Mechanical Laser Cooling in Cryogenic Cavities

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Quantum Opto-Mechanics with Micromirrors

Part of the book series: Springer Theses ((Springer Theses))

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Abstract

In order to control mechanical systems in the quantum regime it is necessary to prepare the resonator in or close to its quantum ground state. This can be achieved by cooling it cryogenically if the mechanical frequency is high enough (for a dilution refrigerator around 1 GHz) [1], by using active feedback cooling [2–6] or by using the radiation-pressure interaction presented in this thesis to passively cool the mechanical motion [7]. A combination of cryogenic pre cooling and radiation-pressure cooling relaxes the requirements in quality and frequency on the mechanical systems and should make ground state cooling experimentally accessible even for low frequencies. The two experiments in this chapter aim at demonstrating that this is in principle possible and show the current limitations of our experiment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that in our case radiation pressure originates from the reflection of photons off the mirror surface and not from absorption and re-emission as is the case in conventional laser cooling. Still, the cooling mechanism of both schemes is completely analogous.

  2. 2.

    The ratio between PDH power spectrum and displacement power spectrum \(S_x\) depends on the cavity detuning \(\Delta \). We can eliminate the unwanted detuning dependence by normalizing \(S_x\) via a reference signal of a known constant displacement power spectrum \(S_{ref}\) that is generated by frequency modulation of the pump laser. In addition, \(S_{ref}\) is an absolute calibration of the effective mass of the mechanical oscillator, as is outlined in detail e.g. in [8].

  3. 3.

    The reduction in finesse compared to the value of \(8000\) is due to our choice of the optimal working point on the cantilever close to the tip of the micromirror, where edge diffraction increased the losses in the cavity.

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  1. Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Simon Gröblacher

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Gröblacher, S. (2012). Mechanical Laser Cooling in Cryogenic Cavities. In: Quantum Opto-Mechanics with Micromirrors. Springer Theses. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34955-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34955-3_5

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