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Preparing and manipulating quantum states of mechanical resonators is a highly interdisciplinary undertaking that now receives enormous interest for its far-reaching potential in fundamental and applied science. Up to now, only nanoscale…
Preparing mechanical systems in their lowest possible entropy state, the quantum ground state, starting from a room temperature environment is a key challenge in quantum optomechanics. This would not only enable creating quantum states of…
Many protocols in quantum science and technology require initializing a system in a pure quantum state. In the context of the motional state of massive resonators, this enables studying fundamental physics at the elusive quantum-classical…
Thermal noise is a major obstacle to observing quantum behavior in macroscopic systems. To mitigate its effect, quantum optomechanical experiments are typically performed in a cryogenic environment. However, this condition represents a…
Ground-state cooling of mesoscopic mechanical resonators is a fundamental requirement for test of quantum theory and for implementation of quantum information. We analyze the cavity optomechanical cooling limits in the intermediate coupling…
We report quantum ground state cooling of a levitated nanoparticle in a room temperature environment. Using coherent scattering into an optical cavity we cool the center of mass motion of a $143$ nm diameter silica particle by more than $7$…
Using a semi-classical approach, we describe an on-chip cooling protocol for a micro-mechanical resonator by employing a superconducting flux qubit. A Lorentz force, generated by the passive back-action of the resonator's displacement, can…
A patterned Si nanobeam is formed which supports co-localized acoustic and optical resonances that are coupled via radiation pressure. Starting from a bath temperature of T=20K, the 3.68GHz nanomechanical mode is cooled into its quantum…
Cooling mechanical resonators is of great importance for both fundamental study and applied science. We investigate the hybrid optomechanical cooling with a three-level atomic ensemble fixed in a strong excited optical cavity. By using the…
The performance of a radiatively cooled instrument is investigated in the context of optomechanical quantum experiments, where the environment of a macroscopic particle in a quantum-superposition has to be cooled to less than 20\,K in deep…
We show that it is possible to cool a nanomechanical resonator mode to its ground state. The proposed technique is based on resonant laser excitation of a phonon sideband of an embedded quantum dot. The strength of the sideband coupling is…
Optical measurements of a nanoscale silicon optomechanical crystal cavity with a mechanical resonance frequency of 3.6GHz are performed at sub-kelvin temperatures. We infer optical-absorption-induced heating and damping of the mechanical…
Quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum impose an observable quantum limit to the lowest temperatures that can be reached with conventional laser cooling techniques. As laser cooling experiments continue to bring massive…
The radiation pressure of light can act to damp and cool the vibrational motion of a mechanical resonator. In understanding the quantum limits of this cooling, one must consider the effect of shot noise fluctuations on the final thermal…
We analyze cooling of a nano-mechanical resonator coupled to a dissipative solid state two level system focusing on the regime of high initial temperatures. We derive an effective Fokker-Planck equation for the mechanical mode which…
We present measurements of silica optomechanical resonators, known as bottle resonators, passively cooled in a cryogenic environment. These devices possess a suite of properties that make them advantageous for preparation and measurement in…
Experimental tests of gravity's fundamental nature call for mechanical systems in the quantum regime while being sensitive to gravity. Torsion pendula, historically vital in studies of classical gravity, are ideal for extending…
Conventional techniques for laser cooling, by coherent scattering off of internal states or through an optical cavity mode, have so far proved inefficient on mechanical oscillators heavier than a few nanograms. That is because larger…
Low-loss, high frequency acoustic resonators cooled to millikelvin temperatures are a topic of great interest for application to hybrid quantum systems. When cooled to 20 mK, we show that resonant acoustic phonon modes in a Bulk Acoustic…
Cooling a mesoscopic mechanical oscillator to its quantum ground state is elementary for the preparation and control of low entropy quantum states of large scale objects. Here, we pre-cool a 70-MHz micromechanical silica oscillator to an…