High-sensitivity optical monitoring of a micromechanical resonator with a quantum-limited optomechanical sensor

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 97; no. 13; p. 133601
• Main Authors: Arcizet, O, Cohadon, P-F, Briant, T, Pinard, M, Heidmann, A, Mackowski, J-M, Michel, C, Pinard, L, Français, O, Rousseau, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 29-09-2006
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.133601

We experimentally demonstrate the high-sensitivity optical monitoring of a micromechanical resonator and its cooling by active control. Coating a low-loss mirror upon the resonator, we have built an optomechanical sensor based on a very high-finesse cavity (30 000). We have measured the thermal noise of the resonator with a quantum-limited sensitivity at the 10(-19) m/sqrt[Hz] level, and cooled the resonator down to 5 K by a cold-damping technique. Applications of our setup range from quantum optics experiments to the experimental demonstration of the quantum ground state of a macroscopic mechanical resonator.