Self-cooling of a movable mirror to the ground state using radiation pressure

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that radiation pressure in a detuned cavity can be used to cool a micro-mechanical oscillator to its quantum ground state through a process called self-cooling, with optimal conditions in the good cavity regime.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical framework for achieving ground state cooling of a movable mirror via radiation pressure in an appropriately detuned cavity.

Findings

Optimal self-cooling occurs in the good cavity regime.

Intracavity field and mechanical mode exchange fluctuations coherently.

Dynamical calculations show how to determine the mirror's final temperature.

Abstract

We show that one can cool a micro-mechanical oscillator to its quantum ground state using radiation pressure in an appropriately detuned cavity (self-cooling). From a simple theory based on Heisenberg-Langevin equations we find that optimal self-cooling occurs in the good cavity regime, when the cavity bandwidth is smaller than the mechanical frequency, but still larger than the effective mechanical damping. In this case the intracavity field and the vibrational mechanical mode coherently exchange their fluctuations. We also present dynamical calculations which show how to access the mirror final temperature from the fluctuations of the field reflected by the cavity.