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Optomechanics

Photons refrigerating phonons

Nature Physics volume 5, pages 458–460 (2009)Cite this article

Optomechanics is a promising route towards the observation of quantum effects in relatively large structures. Three papers, each discussing a different implementation, now combine optical sideband and cryogenic cooling to refrigerate mechanical resonators to fewer than 60 phonons.

Quantum mechanics provokes much popular interest, due to its highly non-intuitive predictions and its unsettling contradictions of everyday experience. Ironically, quantum mechanics has never really been needed to understand mechanical systems. This is because mechanical systems are typically dominated by thermal effects, which destroy the coherence that distinguishes quantum behaviour. Over the past two decades it has become apparent that it should be possible to reach the quantum limit for some mechanical systems1, driven by developments in nanoelectromechanical systems2,3,4, and more recently in optomechanics, in which light is coupled to a mechanical system, enabling use of the full panoply of optical control techniques5.

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Figure 1: Resolved-sideband cooling of an optomechanical resonator.

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  1. Andrew Cleland is in the Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. anc@physics.ucsb.edu,

    Andrew Cleland

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Cleland, A. Photons refrigerating phonons. Nature Phys 5, 458–460 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1324

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