Quadratic optomechanical cooling of a cavity-levitated nanosphere

Year: 2021

Authors: Bullier N.P., Pontin A., Barker P.F.

Autors Affiliation: UCL, Dept Phys & Astron, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, England; Natl Phys Lab, Hampton Rd, Teddington TW11 0LW, Middx, England.

Abstract: We report on cooling of the center-of-mass motion of a nanoparticle via a coupling between its motion and the optical field within a high finesse cavity. The resulting coupling is purely quadratic in displacement and gives rise to a van der Pol nonlinear damping. These dynamics are analogous to conventional parametric feedback where the cavity provides passive feedback without an additional measurement. We show experimentally that as feedback cooling, the resulting energy distribution is strongly nonthermal and can be controlled by the nonlinear damping induced by the cavity. Our work represents a demonstration of a cavity cooling dominated by this type of coupling across all optomechanical platforms.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH

Volume: 3 (3)      Pages from: L032022-1  to: L032022-6

More Information: The authors would like to acknowledge useful discussions with M. Toros. The authors acknowledge funding from the EPSRC Grant No. EP/N031105/1. N.P.B. acknowledges funding from the EPSRC Grant No. EP/L015242/1. A.P. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 749709.
KeyWords: Nanoparticle; Entanglement
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L032022