QUANTOP, Master thesis presentation by Timo Zwettler

Speaker: Timo Zwettler, QUANTOP and University of Munich

Title: "Suppression of Heating Mechanisms for Deep Optomechanical Ground-State Cooling"

Abstract: The creation of a single quantum of mechanical motion in a macroscopic harmonic oscillator is a textbook example of quantum mechanics. In the Fock state experiment our goal is the creation of such a single excitation in an ultracoherent nanomechanical membrane resonator. As a first step, the membrane resonator has to be cooled deeply into the ground-state. In my thesis, I address different heating mechanisms in pulsed sideband cooling for pulsed Fock state creation. In my talk, I will present a thorough characterization of the noise properties of our MSquared Ti:Sapph laser as well as the performance of a filter cavity.

Furthermore, I will show our investigation of transient heating due to pulsed sideband cooling and how we can adiabatically transfer the membrane to a new mean position.