Constanze Metzger
Ludwig-Maximilian-Universitaet Munich
Note different date
Monday, March 12, 2007
2:00 pm in SPL 52
Laser cooling of micro-mirrors
Abstract: The prospect of realizing entangled quantum states between macroscopic objects and photons has recently stimulated interest in new laser-cooling schemes of macroscopic mechanical resonators, ranging from millimetric mirrors to microscopic levers. For instance, laser-cooling of the vibrational modes of a mirror can be achieved by subjecting it to a photon-induced force, actively controlled through a feedback loop in order to oppose the mirrorīs brownian motion. In contrast to that technique, micro-mirrors can as well be laser-cooled passively without having to make use of such an active feedback, because their brownian motion is intrinsically damped through their interaction with photons in a standing wave inside an optical cavity. Our cooling scheme relies on a time-delayed optomechanical coupling between the motion of the micro-mirror and the photon field of an optical cavity. The principles and recent experimental studies of a passive laser-cooling scheme of micromechanical resonators are presented.