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ABSTRACT: Cooling a mesoscopic mechanical oscillator to its quantum ground state is
elementary for the preparation and control of low entropy quantum states of
large scale objects. Here, we pre-cool a 70-MHz micromechanical silica
oscillator to an occupancy below 200 quanta by thermalizing it with a 600-mK
cold 3He gas. Two-level system induced damping via structural defect states is
shown to be strongly reduced, and simultaneously serves as novel thermometry
method to independently quantify excess heating due to the cooling laser. We
demonstrate that dynamical backaction sideband cooling can reduce the average
occupancy to 9+-1 quanta, implying that the mechanical oscillator can be found
(10+- 1)% of the time in its quantum ground state.
Physical Review A 06/2011; 83:063835. · 2.88 Impact Factor
