Cooling of a Gram-Scale Cantilever Flexure to 70 mK with a Servo-Modified Optical Spring

A series of recent articles have presented results demonstrating optical cooling of macroscopic objects, highlighting the importance of this phenomenon for investigations of macroscopic quantum mechanics and its implications for thermal noise in gravitational wave detectors. In this Letter, we prese...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 100; no. 1; p. 010801
Main Authors Mow-Lowry, C M, Mullavey, A J, Gossler, S, Gray, M B, McClelland, D E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 11.01.2008
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Summary:A series of recent articles have presented results demonstrating optical cooling of macroscopic objects, highlighting the importance of this phenomenon for investigations of macroscopic quantum mechanics and its implications for thermal noise in gravitational wave detectors. In this Letter, we present a measurement of the off-resonance suspension thermal noise of a 1 g oscillator, and we show that it can be cooled to just 70 mK. The cooling is achieved by using a servo to impose a phase delay between oscillator motion and optical force. A model is developed to show how optical rigidity and optical cooling can be interchangeable using this technique.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.010801