Cold atoms as a coolant for levitated optomechanical systems

Abstract

Optically trapped dielectric objects are well suited for reaching the quantum regime of their center of mass motion in an ultra-high vacuum environment. We show that ground state cooling of an optically trapped nanosphere is achievable when starting at room temperature, by sympathetic cooling of a cold atomic gas optically coupled to the nanoparticle. Unlike cavity cooling in the resolved sideband limit, this system requires only a modest cavity finesse and it allows the cooling to be turned off, permitting subsequent observation of strongly-coupled dynamics between the atoms and sphere. Nanospheres cooled to their quantum ground state could have applications in quantum information science or in precision sensing.

6 pages, 2 figures

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Attonewton force detection using microspheres in a dual-beam optical trap in high vacuum
• Auxiliary-cavity-assisted ground-state cooling of optically levitated nanosphere in the unresolved-sideband regime
• Spin-mechanics with nitrogen-vacancy centers and trapped particles
• Ultra-precision quantum sensing and measurement based on nonlinear hybrid optomechanical systems containing ultracold atoms or atomic Bose-Einstein condensate
• Sympathetic laser-cooling of graphene with Casimir-Polder forces