Single-laser feedback cooling of optomechanical resonators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel single-laser feedback cooling method for optomechanical resonators, simplifying the setup and potentially enhancing cooling efficiency through interference effects, with both theoretical analysis and experimental validation.

Contribution

The work introduces and experimentally validates a single-laser feedback cooling technique, reducing complexity and leveraging interference effects to improve cooling performance.

Findings

Feedback cooling is feasible with a single laser under stability conditions.

Interference effects can enhance cooling efficiency.

Experimental results confirm theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Measurement-based control has emerged as an important technique to prepare mechanical resonators in pure quantum states for applications in quantum information processing and quantum sensing. Conventionally this has required two separate channels, one for probing the motion and another one acting back on the resonator. In this work, we analyze and experimentally demonstrate a technique of single-laser feedback cooling, where one laser is used for both probing and controlling the mechanical motion. We show using an analytical model and experiments that feedback cooling is feasible in this mode as long as certain stability requirements are fulfilled. Our results demonstrate that, in addition to being more experimentally feasible construction, the interference effects of the single-laser feedback can actually be used to enhance cooling at some parameter regimes.