2021/04/23 by Leonhard Neuhaus, Neuhaus, Leonhard, Rémi Metzdorff +29
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2104.11648
openalex publication_date 2021/04/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Quantum mechanics has so far not been tested for mechanical objects at the scale of the Planck mass √(ℏ c/ G) ≃ 22 μg. We present an experiment where a 1 mm quartz micropillar resonating at 3.6 MHz with an effective mass of 30 μg is cooled to 500 mK with a dilution refrigerator, and further optomechanically sideband-cooled to an effective temperature of 3 mK, corresponding to a mode thermal occupancy of 20 phonons. This nearly 1000-fold increase in the mass of an optomechanical system with respect to previous experiments near the quantum ground state opens new perspectives in the exploration of the quantum/classical border.