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arXiv:1910.05371 · Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Simulation of sympathetic cooling an optically levitated magnetic nanoparticle via coupling to a cold atomic gas

Troy Seberson, Peng Ju, Jonghoon Ahn, Jaehoon Bang, Tongcang Li, F. Robicheaux

Published Oct 9, 2020• 15 citations

Abstract

A proposal for cooling the translational motion of optically levitated magnetic nanoparticles is presented. The theoretical cooling scheme involves the sympathetic cooling of a ferromagnetic YIG nanosphere with a spin-polarized atomic gas. The particle–atom cloud coupling is mediated through the magnetic dipole–dipole interaction. When the particle and atom oscillations are small compared to their separation, the interaction potential becomes dominantly linear, which allows the particle to exchange energy with the N atoms. While the atoms are continuously Doppler cooled, energy is able to be removed from the nanoparticle’s motion as it exchanges energy with the atoms. The rate at which energy is removed from the nanoparticle’s motion was studied for three species of atoms (Dy, Cr, Rb) by simulating the full N + 1 equations of motion and was found to depend on system parameters with scalings that are consistent with a simplified model. The nanoparticle’s damping rate due to sympathetic cooling is competitive with and has the potential to exceed commonly employed cooling methods.

DOI: 10.1364/josab.404985

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A proposal for cooling the translational motion of optically levitated magnetic nanoparticles is presented. The theoretical cooling scheme involves the sympathetic cooling of a ferromagnetic YIG nanosphere with a spin-polarized atomic gas. The particle–atom cloud coupling is mediated through the magnetic dipole–dipole interaction. When the particle and atom oscillations are small compared to their separation, the interaction potential becomes dominantly linear, which allows the particle to exchange energy with the N atoms. While the atoms are continuously Doppler cooled, energy is able to be removed from the nanoparticle’s motion as it exchanges energy with the atoms. The rate at which energy is removed from the nanoparticle’s motion was studied for three species of atoms (Dy, Cr, Rb) by simulating the full N + 1 equations of motion and was found to depend on system parameters with scalings that are consistent with a simplified model. The nanoparticle’s damping rate due to sympathetic cooling is competitive with and has the potential to exceed commonly employed cooling methods.

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Optomechanical cooling of levitated nanoparticles has become an essential topic in modern quantum physics, providing a platform for exploring macroscopic quantum phenomena and high-precision sensing. However, conventional cavity-assisted cooling is fundamentally constrained by cavity dissipation and environmental noise, limiting the attainable minimum temperature. In this work, we propose a non-Hermitian optomechanical cooling scheme through nonreciprocal coupling between two levitated nanoparticles, where one particle is directly cooled by an optical cavity and the other is cooled indirectly through a non-Hermitian interaction. Both analytical solutions and numerical simulations reveal that increasing nonreciprocity enhances directional energy transfer, enabling the target particle to reach a lower phonon occupation than is achievable in conventional cavity cooling. This study demonstrates a new cooling mechanism driven by non-Hermitian interactions, offering theoretical guidance for realizing controllable energy flow and deep cooling in levitated optomechanical systems, and paving the way for future developments in quantum control and sensing technologies.

We develop the theory describing the quantum coupled dynamics of the center-of-mass motion of a nanoparticle and an ensemble of ions co-trapped in a dual-frequency linear Paul trap. We first derive analytical expressions for the motional frequencies and classical trajectories of both nanoparticle and ions. We then derive a quantum master equation for the ion-nanoparticle system and quantify the sympathetic cooling of the nanoparticle motion enabled by its Coulomb coupling to a continuously Doppler-cooled ion. We predict that motional cooling down to sub-kelvin temperatures is achievable in state-of-the-art experiments even in the absence of motional feedback and in the presence of micromotion. We then extend our analysis to an ensemble of

N

ions, predicting a linear increase of the cooling rate as a function of

N

and motional cooling of the nanoparticle down to tenths of millikelvin in current experimental platforms. Our work establishes the theoretical toolbox needed to explore the ion-assisted preparation of non-Gaussian motional states of levitated nanoparticles.

Abstract Near-field, radially symmetric optical potentials supported by a levitated nanosphere can be used for sympathetic cooling and for creating a bound nanosphere-atom system analogous to a large molecule. We demonstrate that the long range, Coulomb-like potential produced by a single blue detuned field increases the collisional cross-section by eight orders of magnitude, allowing fast sympathetic cooling of a trapped nanosphere to microKelvin temperatures using cold atoms. By using two optical fields to create a combination of repulsive and attractive potentials, we demonstrate that a cold atom can be bound to a nanosphere creating a new levitated hybrid quantum system suitable for exploring quantum mechanics with massive particles.