Bistable cooling in optomechanical system

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bistable effect in optomechanical systems that enhances cooling of mechanical resonators even in the weak coupling regime, offering a new approach to optimize cooling processes.

Contribution

The study uncovers a bistable photon-phonon effect and demonstrates its potential to improve sideband cooling without high cavity quality factors.

Findings

Bistability enables strong nonlinear effects at weak coupling.

Steady state phonon fluctuations are significantly suppressed.

Cooling optimization does not require high-Q cavities.

Abstract

A scheme is presented to optimize the optomechanical cooling of mechanical resonator in instability regime. Based on the stability analysis, we uncovered a distinct bistable effect of photons and phonons, which can be used to realize a strong nonlinear effect even in the single-photon weak coupling regime. Considering the experimental realization, we investigate the sideband cooling in bistable regime with and without quantum nonlinearity. It is shown that the fluctuation of the steady state phonons can be excellently suppressed at a rather low level due to the anti-rotating-wave effect, and it does not require high quality factor of the cavity. Our scheme offers a new perspective for optimizing the sideband cooling of mechanical resonators in the weak coupling regime.