Dr. Andrew Jayich
CALTECH

Two optomechanical experiments: Laser cooling from a 400 mK base temperature and optomechanical levitation at 300 K

Optomechanics is a diverse field where harmonic oscillators are coupled to an optical field via the radiation pressure force. The mechanical devices range from atom clouds to the kilogram scale mirrors used in the LIGO observatories. There are promising applications and there is exciting fundamental physics research taking place. The starting point for many interesting measurements begins with the mechanical device in its ground state, where it has less than a phonon worth of energy.

I will present on an optomechanical system from the Jack Harris Lab at Yale University where a high finesse cavity is coupled to a millimeter scale SiN membrane that is anchored to a He3 fridge at 400 mK. We have laser cooled to an occupancy of 100 phonons. The cooling is limited by mechanical vibrations that will hopefully be eliminated in a future design.

I will also discuss recent work in Jeff Kimble's lab where we are using an optical dipole trap to effectively levitate a mechanical system at 300 K. The optical spring provides a nearly lossless potential, raising the mechanical quality factor (Q) and frequency. With a high frequency and Q observing quantum behavior in a mechanical system at room temperature should be possible.