Novel cooling protocols for optomechanical systems and trapped ions, using a framework for analytic analysis and numeric optimization of pulsed control sequences

We present novel protocols for cooling of optomechanical systems and trapped ions, which are capable of cooling at much faster rates, shorter overall cooling times, and for a wider set of experimental scenarios than is possible by conventional methods. For ion traps, the cooling sequence generated by the scheme allows cooling faster than the trapping frequency. For optomechanical systems, the proposed scheme, which is based on interferometric control of optomechanical interactions,  can be implemented for both strongly and weakly coupled optomechanical systems in both weakly and highly dissipative cavities (where sideband cooling fails due to its inherent rate limitation). The short time in which our scheme approaches the optomechanical ground state allows a significant relaxation of current experimental constraints. To achieve the above results we employ a novel framework for deriving and analyzing pulsed control schemes - initially, performing analytic analysis at the impulsive limit, followed by computer algebra for analytic analysis of higher-order effects, and finally we utilize numeric optimal control to adapt the pulsed control schemes to realistic experimental scenarios. 

 

[1] Pulsed Laser Cooling for Cavity-Optomechanical Resonators, S. Machnes, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. accepted for publication, arXiv/1104.5448

[2] Superfast Laser Cooling, S. Machnes, et al. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 183001 (2010)