A macroscopic object passively cooled into its quantum ground state of motion beyond single-mode cooling

Cattiaux, D.; Golokolenov, I.; Kumar, S.; Sillanpää, M.; Mercier de Lépinay, L.; Gazizulin, R. R.; Zhou, X.; Armour, A. D.; Bourgeois, O.; Fefferman, A.; Collin, E.

Abstract

The nature of the quantum-to-classical crossover remains one of the most challenging open question of Science to date. In this respect, moving objects play a specific role. Pioneering experiments over the last few years have begun exploring quantum behaviour of micron-sized mechanical systems, either by passively cooling single GHz modes, or by adapting laser cooling techniques developed in atomic physics to cool specific low-frequency modes far below the temperature of their surroundings. Here instead we describe a very different approach, passive cooling of a whole micromechanical system down to 500 μK, reducing the average number of quanta in the fundamental vibrational mode at 15 MHz to just 0.3 (with even lower values expected for higher harmonics); the challenge being to be still able to detect the motion without disturbing the system noticeably. With such an approach higher harmonics and the surrounding environment are also cooled, leading to potentially much longer mechanical coherence times, and enabling experiments questioning mechanical wave-function collapse, potentially from the gravitational background, and quantum thermodynamics. Beyond the average behaviour, here we also report on the fluctuations of the fundamental vibrational mode of the device in-equilibrium with the cryostat. These reveal a surprisingly complex interplay with the local environment and allow characteristics of two distinct thermodynamic baths to be probed.

Citation

Cattiaux, D., Golokolenov, I., Kumar, S., Sillanpää, M., Mercier de Lépinay, L., Gazizulin, R. R., …Collin, E. (2021). A macroscopic object passively cooled into its quantum ground state of motion beyond single-mode cooling. Nature Communications, 12(1), Article 6182. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26457-8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 1, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Oct 26, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 26, 2021
• Deposit Date: Oct 26, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 2, 2021
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-1723
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 6182
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26457-8
• Keywords: General Physics and Astronomy; General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Chemistry
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6538666
• Publisher URL: https://www-nature-com.nottingham.idm.oclc.org/articles/s41467-021-26457-8
• Additional Information: Received: 17 August 2021; Accepted: 1 October 2021; First Online: 26 October 2021; : The authors declare no competing interests.