{
  "id": "1903.10242",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2019-03-25T11:10:13.000Z",
  "updated": "2019-03-25T11:10:13.000Z",
  "title": "High-fidelity laser cooling to the quantum ground state of a silicon nanomechanical oscillator",
  "authors": [
    "Liu Qiu",
    "Itay Shomroni",
    "Paul Seidler",
    "Tobias J. Kippenberg"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "quant-ph"
  ],
  "abstract": "Silicon optomechanical crystals enable coupling of photonics at telecommunication wavelengths to GHz mechanical modes, giving rise to optomechanical dynamics that can extend well into the resolved-sideband regime. These devices operate in a frequency range compatible with superconducting qubits and could in principle be integrated on the same material platform to create hybrid systems for quantum information applications. Despite these promising characteristics, high-fidelity ground state preparation has to date only been achieved using passive cooling in a dilution refrigerator. Moreover, heating due to optical absorption has limited measurement protocols to short, low-energy optical pulses. Here, we demonstrate continuous-wave laser sideband cooling of an optomechanical system reaching a mean thermal occupancy of $0.25_{-0.03}^{+0.07}$ quanta, or 80\\% ground state occupation, verified via motional sideband asymmetry. We achieve this by employing a $^3$He buffer gas environment and employing a device with a high optical quality factor. Our results overcome previous heating limitations and highlight the promise of silicon optomechanical crystals for quantum-enhanced continuous displacement measurements, as low-added-noise optomechanical interfaces for signal transduction and integration with superconducting qubit technology.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2019-03-25T11:10:13.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "quantum ground state",
      "silicon nanomechanical oscillator",
      "high-fidelity laser cooling",
      "continuous-wave laser sideband cooling",
      "silicon optomechanical crystals"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}