Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-13-2007
Abstract
We report on a stable optical trap suitable for a macroscopic mirror, wherein the dynamics of the mirror are fully dominated by radiation pressure. The technique employs two frequency-offset laser fields to simultaneously create a stiff optical restoring force and a viscous optical damping force. We show how these forces may be used to optically trap a free mass without introducing thermal noise, and we demonstrate the technique experimentally with a 1 g mirror. The observed optical spring has an inferred Young's modulus of 1.2 TPa, 20% stiffer than diamond. The trap is intrinsically cold and reaches an effective temperature of 0.8 K, limited by technical noise in our apparatus. © 2007 The American Physical Society.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Physical Review Letters
Recommended Citation
Corbitt, T., Chen, Y., Innerhofer, E., Müller-Ebhardt, H., Ottaway, D., Rehbein, H., Sigg, D., Whitcomb, S., Wipf, C., & Mavalvala, N. (2007). An all-optical trap for a gram-scale mirror. Physical Review Letters, 98 (15) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.150802