Ultrahigh-Q mechanical oscillators through optical trapping

D. E. Chang; K. -K. Ni; O. Painter; H. J. Kimble

paper

Ultrahigh-Q mechanical oscillators through optical trapping

arXiv:1101.0146

Abstract

Rapid advances are being made toward optically cooling a single mode of a micro-mechanical system to its quantum ground state and observing quantum behavior at macroscopic scales. Reaching this regime in room-temperature environments requires a stringent condition on the mechanical quality factor $Q_{m}$ and frequency $f_{m}$ , $Q_{m} f_{m} ≳ k_{B} T_{ba t h} / h$ , which so far has been marginally satisfied only in a small number of systems. Here we propose and analyze a new class of systems that should enable unprecedented $Q_{m} f_{m}$ values. The technique is based upon using optical forces to "trap" and stiffen the motion of a tethered mechanical structure, thereby freeing the resultant mechanical frequencies and decoherence rates from underlying material properties.

23 pages, 5 figures