NIST researchers have developed a new technique for cooling mechanical micro-drum devices to their quantum ground state, a significant advancement in quantum technologies. The aluminum drum, made of 1 trillion atoms, was cooled using sideband cooling, a method similar to laser cooling of atoms. This allowed the drum to reach temperatures below 400 microKelvin, with its energy reduced to just one-third of a quantum.
The NIST drum has several advantages over previous quantum ground state devices, including a higher quality factor (able to hold a beat longer) and slower beating rate. This allows individual energy packets (quanta) to be stored 10,000 times longer, potentially useful for quantum computer memory and exploring complex mechanical and quantum states.
The research has applications in quantum computing, where the drum could serve as a short-term memory device in superconducting quantum computer circuits. It could also act as an intermediary for transferring quantum information between microwave and optical components. The technique builds on previous work at NIST in laser cooling of atoms and could advance the field of quantum acoustics.
Keywords: micromechanical motion, quantum ground state, sideband cooling, phonon, quantum bits
