An enduring challenge for contemporary physics is to experimentally observe and control quantum behavior in macroscopic systems. We show that a single trapped atomic ion could be used to probe the quantum nature of a mesoscopic mechanical oscillator precooled to 4K, and furthermore, to cool the oscillator with high efficiency to its quantum ground state. The proposed experiment could be performed using currently available technology.
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0501037,
title = {Ion trap transducers for quantum electromechanical oscillators},
author = {W. K. Hensinger and D. W. Utami and H. -S. Goan and K. Schwab and C. Monroe and G. J. Milburn},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0501037},
year = {2007}
}