title: Cavity cooling a single charged levitated nanosphere.
abstract: Optomechanical cavity cooling of levitated objects offers the possibility for laboratory investigation of the macroscopic quantum behavior of systems that are largely decoupled from their environment. However, experimental progress has been hindered by particle loss mechanisms, which have prevented levitation and cavity cooling in a vacuum. We overcome this problem with a new type of hybrid electro-optical trap formed from a Paul trap within a single-mode optical cavity. We demonstrate a factor of 100 cavity cooling of 400 nm diameter silica spheres trapped in vacuum. This paves the way for ground-state cooling in a smaller, higher finesse cavity, as we show that a novel feature of the hybrid trap is that the optomechanical cooling becomes actively driven by the Paul trap, even for singly charged nanospheres.
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Millen
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
authors: P Z G
authors: PZ
authors: Fonseca
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Mavrogordatos
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
authors: T S
authors: TS
authors: Monteiro
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
authors: P F
authors: PF
authors: Barker