Solid-state laser refrigeration of a semiconductor optomechanical resonator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates laser cooling of a semiconductor optomechanical resonator by over 20K below room temperature using anti-Stokes photoluminescence from ytterbium ions, addressing photothermal heating issues in nanoscale devices.

Contribution

It reports the first direct laser refrigeration of an optomechanical resonator via upconverted photoluminescence, enabling internal temperature reduction in such systems.

Findings

Achieved >20K cooling below room temperature.

Demonstrated anti-Stokes photoluminescence as cooling mechanism.

Potential applications in quantum and photonic technologies.

Abstract

Photothermal heating represents a major constraint that limits the performance of many nanoscale optoelectronic and optomechanical devices including nanolasers, quantum optomechanical resonators, and integrated photonic circuits. Although radiation-pressure damping has been reported to cool an individual vibrational mode of an optomechanical resonator to its quantum ground state, to date the internal material temperature within an optomechanical resonator has not been reported to cool via laser excitation. Here we demonstrate the direct laser refrigeration of a semiconductor optomechanical resonator >20K below room temperature based on the emission of upconverted, anti-Stokes photoluminescence of trivalent ytterbium ions doped within a yttrium-lithium-fluoride (YLF) host crystal. Optically-refrigerating the lattice of a dielectric resonator has the potential to impact several fields including scanning probe microscopy, the sensing of weak forces, the measurement of atomic masses, and the development of radiation-balanced solid-state lasers. In addition, optically refrigerated resonators may be used in the future as a promising starting point to perform motional cooling for exploration of quantum effects at mesoscopic length scales,temperature control within integrated photonic devices, and solid-state laser refrigeration of quantum materials