2007/05/31 by Claudiu Genes, David Vitali, Paolo Tombesi +3 · 10 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Photonic and Optical Devices #cond-mat.mes-hall #gr-qc #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.77.033804
published as Phys. Rev. A 77, 033804 (2008); Phys. Rev. A 79, 039903(E) (2009) · 10 pages, 4 figures. Erratum of the published version included
openalex publication_date 2008/03/03 · arxiv created 2009/07/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We provide a general framework to describe cooling of a micromechanical oscillator to its quantum ground state by means of radiation-pressure coupling with a driven optical cavity. We apply it to two experimentally realized schemes, back-action cooling via a detuned cavity and cold-damping quantum-feedback cooling, and we determine the ultimate quantum limits of both schemes for the full parameter range of a stable cavity. While both allow one to reach the oscillator's quantum ground state, we find that back-action cooling is more efficient in the good cavity limit, i.e., when the cavity bandwidth is smaller than the mechanical frequency, while cold damping is more suitable for the bad cavity limit. The results of previous treatments are recovered as limiting cases of specific parameter regimes.