Passive Cooling of a Micromechanical Oscillator with a Resonant Electric Circuit

Published

September 28, 2007

Author(s)

Kenton R. Brown, Joseph W. Britton, Ryan Epstein, John Chiaverini, Dietrich G. Leibfried, David J. Wineland

Abstract

Currently there is considerable interest in the cooling of macroscopic mechanical oscillators, as strong cooling may allow one to reach the quantum regime of such oscillators. Recent advances in microfabrication and cooling techniques have brought this regime much closer. Here, we reduce the mean energy in the fundamental flexural mode of a miniature cantilever by capacitively coupling it to a driven radio-frequency resonant circuit. The cantilever capacitance contributes to the total capacitance of the circuit, and a force on the cantilever exists due to the electric field energy stored in its capacitance. If this force varies with an appropriate phase shift relative to the motion of the cantilever, it can oppose the velocity of the cantilever, leading to cooling. We observe a reduction from ambient temperature to 45 K and explain this with a simple model. Such cooling may eventually enable one to reach the quantum regime of cantilever motion.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

99

Issue

137205

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

cantilever cooling, dynamical backaction, ground state, mechanical oscillator, quantum regime, radio frequency cooling

Citation

Brown, K. , Britton, J. , Epstein, R. , Chiaverini, J. , Leibfried, D. and Wineland, D. (2007), Passive Cooling of a Micromechanical Oscillator with a Resonant Electric Circuit, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50534 (Accessed October 18, 2025)