Dynamical backaction cooling with free electrons

Abstract

The ability to cool single ions, atomic ensembles, and more recently macroscopic degrees of freedom down to the quantum ground state has generated considerable progress and perspectives in fundamental and technological science. These major advances have been essentially obtained by coupling mechanical motion to a resonant electromagnetic degree of freedom in what is generally known as laser cooling. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the first self-induced coherent cooling mechanism that is not mediated by an electromagnetic resonance. Using a focused electron beam, we report a 50-fold reduction of the motional temperature of a nanowire. Our result primarily relies on the sub-nanometre confinement of the electron beam and generalizes to any delayed and spatially confined interaction, with important consequences for near-field microscopy and fundamental nanoscale dissipation mechanisms.

Citation

Niguès, A., Siria, A., & Verlot, P. (2015). Dynamical backaction cooling with free electrons. Nature Communications, 6(1), Article 8104. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9104

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 31, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 18, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Deposit Date: Dec 10, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 4, 2019
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-1723
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 8104
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9104
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1397114
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9104