Optomechanical Sideband Cooling
Laser cooling of a mechanical resonator via radiation pressure in an optical cavity
Resolved-sideband cooling (Marquardt et al. 2007; Wilson-Rae et al. 2007): A red-detuned laser (Δ = −Ω_m) drives anti-Stokes scattering: absorbing one phonon while emitting a cavity photon. Cooling rate A₋ = g²·κ/[(κ/2)²+Ω_m²] per phonon number. In the resolved-sideband limit Ω_m >> κ, the final occupancy n_f → (κ/4Ω_m)² → 0. Ground state cooling was first achieved by O'Connell et al. (2010) and Teufel et al. (2011) using microwave optomechanics.