An all-optical trap for a gram-scale mirror

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Date

2007

Authors

Corbitt, T.
Chen, Y.
Innerhofer, E.
Muller-Ebhardt, H.
Ottaway, D.
Rehbein, H.
Sigg, D.
Whitcomb, S.
Wipf, C.
Mavalvala, N.

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Physical Review Letters, 2007; 98(15):150802-1-150802-4

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Thomas Corbitt, Yanbei Chen, Edith Innerhofer, Helge Müller-Ebhardt, David Ottaway, Henning Rehbein, Daniel Sigg, Stanley Whitcomb, Christopher Wipf, and Nergis Mavalvala

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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.

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©2007 American Physical Society

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