| Laser cooling of atomic gases has been a subject of intense and very prolific research in atom optics. Solid-state systems in contrast were thought so far not ideally predestined for such opto-mechanical manipulations. In this presentation I discuss how opto-mechanical interactions between a laser field and a deformable micro-mirror could lead to efficient optical cooling. As an exemple I discuss how to perform laser cooling of the vibrational modes of a gold coated micro-cantilever. The presentation will focus on the effect of back-action of light on a deformable mirror and I will discuss a simple but elegant model that accounts for the observed cooling. At the end of the talk I will discuss the perspectives of cooling micromechanical system down to the quantum limit. |
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