Cryogenic properties of optomechanical silica microcavities

Arcizet, Olivier; Rivière, R.; Schließer, Albert; Anetsberger, G.; Kippenberg, Tobias J.

doi:10.1364/cleo.2009.cmkk4

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…The strong modification of the oscillator's properties can be modelled with the well understood radiation pressure-induced dynamical backaction. This allows extracting the additional mechanical damping due to defects in the glass described as an ensemble of two-level systems (TLS) [5]. Its strong temperature dependence enables an independent determination of the toroids' temperature, which can be compared to the noise temperature of the mechanical mode (Fig.…”

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Cooling of a mechanical oscillator close to the quantum regime

Rivière

Deléglise

Weis

et al. 2011

2011 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and 12th European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO EUROPE/EQEC)

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The control of low-entropy quantum states of a micro-oscillator could not only allow researchers to probe quantum phenomena-such as entanglement and decoherence-at an unprecedentedly large scale, but also enable their use as interfaces in hybrid quantum systems. Preparing and probing an oscillator in the conceptually simplest low-entropy state, its quantum ground state, has now become a major goal in Cavity Optomechanics [1]. However, to experimentally achieve this goal, its effective temperature T eff has to be reduced sufficiently so that hOm» kB Teff (h is the reduced Planck constant, kB the Boltzman constant, and Om the mechanical resonance pulsation). Using conventional cryogenic refrigeration, a nanomechanical oscillator has recently been cooled to the quantum regime and probed by a superconducting qubit to which it was piezoelectrically coupled [2].Here, we demonstrate a different technique, applying optical sideband cooling [3] to a cryogenically precooled silica toroidal optomechanical micoresonator ( Fig. 1 b inset). This versatile technique, similar to laser cooling techniques known in atomic physics, can be applied to a wide range of opto-and electromechanical systems which exhibit parametric coupling of high-quality electromagnetic and mechanical modes.

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confidence: 99%

Cooling of a mechanical oscillator close to the quantum regime

Rivière

Deléglise

Weis

et al. 2011

2011 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and 12th European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO EUROPE/EQEC)

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Resolved-sideband cooling and position measurement of a micromechanical oscillator close to the Heisenberg uncertainty limit

et al. 2009

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The observation of quantum phenomena in macroscopic mechanical oscillators [1,2] has been a subject of interest since the inception of quantum mechanics. It may provide insights into the quantum-classical boundary, experimental investigation of the theory of quantum measurements [1,3,4], the origin of mechanical decoherence [5] and generation of non-classical states of motion.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 ∆x of the oscillator's ground state wavefunction. Over the past decade, it has been widely perceived that the most promising approach to address these two challenges are electro nanomechanical systems [2,6,7,8,9,10], which can be cooled with milli-Kelvin scale dilution refrigerators, and feature large ∆x ∼ 10 −14 m resolvable with electronic transducers such as a superconducting single-electron transistor [7,8,11], a microwave stripline cavity [9] or a quantum interference device [12]. In this manner, thermal occupation as low as 25 quanta [7,10] has been measured. Here we approach for the first time the quantum regime with a mechanical oscillator of mesoscopic dimensions-discernible to the bare eye-and 1000-times more massive than the heaviest nano-mechanical oscillators used to date. Imperative to these advances are two key principles of cavity optomechanics [13]: Optical interferometric measurement of mechanical displacement at the attometer level [14,15], and the ability to use measurement induced dynamic back-action [16,17,18,19] to achieve resolved sideband laser cooling [9,20] of the mechanical degree of freedom. Using only modest cryogenic pre-cooling to 1.65 K, preparation of a mechanical oscillator close to its quantum ground state (63 ± 20 phonons) is demonstrated.Simultaneously, a readout sensitivity that is within a factor of 5.5 ± 1.5 of the standard quantum limit [1,21] is achieved. Taking measurement backaction into account, this represents the closest approach to the Heisenberg uncertainty relation for continuous position measurements yet demonstrated. The reported experiments mark a paradigm shift in the approach to the quantum limit of mechanical oscillators using optical techniques and represent a first step into a new era of experimental investigation which probes the quantum nature of the most tangible harmonic oscillator: a mechanical vibration. * These authors contributed equally to this work. † tobias.kippenberg@epfl.ch 2 The experimental setting of the present work is a cavity optomechanical system, which parametrically couples optical and mechanical degrees of freedom via radiation pressure. In the present case, toroidal microresonators are employed which exhibit (cf. Fig. 1 Fig. 1b). The quality factors of the RBM can reach values up to 80,000 if clamping losses are mitigated by modal engineering [24]. To achieve a regime of low mechanical oscillator occupancy we apply laser cooling to a cryogenically pre-cooled micromechanical oscillator with high ...

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Cryogenic properties of optomechanical silica microcavities

Cited by 2 publications

References 17 publications

Cooling of a mechanical oscillator close to the quantum regime

Cooling of a mechanical oscillator close to the quantum regime

Resolved-sideband cooling and position measurement of a micromechanical oscillator close to the Heisenberg uncertainty limit

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