Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 6: Mikromechanische Systeme

Q 6.1: Talk

Monday, March 12, 2012, 10:30–10:45, V7.02

Pulsed Laser Cooling for Cavity-Optomechanical Resonators — Javier Cerrillo¹, •Shai Machnes¹, Markus Aspelmeyer², Witlef Wieczorek², Martin Plenio^1,3, and Alex Retzker¹ — ¹Institut fur Theoretische Physik, Universitat Ulm, D-89069 Ulm, Germany — ²Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria — ³QOLS, The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Rd., SW7 2BW, UK

A pulsed cooling scheme for optomechanical systems is presented that is capable of cooling at much faster rates, shorter overall cooling times, and for a wider set of experimental scenarios than is possible by conventional methods. The proposed scheme can be implemented for both strongly and weakly coupled optomechanical systems in both weakly and highly dissipative cavities (where sideband cooling fails due to its inherent rate limitation). We study analytically its underlying working mechanism, which is based on interferometric control of optomechanical interactions, and we demonstrate its efficiency with pulse sequences obtained using methods from optimal control. The short time in which our scheme approaches the optomechanical ground state allows a significant relaxation of current experimental constraints. Finally, the presented framework can be used to create a rich variety of optomechanical interactions and hence offers a novel, readily available toolbox for fast optomechanical quantum control.