Ground state cooling of multiple mesoscopic objects in optical levitation through wavefront shaping – GROOVE

In optical levitation, light forces are harnessed to trap nano-objects and assemble opto-mechanical resonators with exceptional quality factors. Through a reduction of their thermal vibrations, levitating resonators can be cooled towards their motional ground state and, then, offer the mesmerizing opportunity of questioning quantum physics. These mesoscopic objects stand at the limit between classical and quantum worlds and, thus, can serve to confirm (or rule out) fundamental hypotheses in quantum physics. While the ground state of a single object has recently been reported, the paramount prospect in levitation lays now in reaching the ground state of a multi-element system—which would, for instance, enable the entanglement of mesoscopic objects or complex quantum memories. Yet, current cooling techniques designed for single particles cannot be multiplexed to address several objects in parallel and, to this day, even a moderate multi-element cooling has never been reported.

GROOVE ambitions to achieve the first ever cooling of multiple objects in levitation through wavefront shaping techniques developed in the context of multiple-scattering media. Wavefront shaping performs a spatial modulation of the optical field to exhaustively control its propagation through complex environments. Here, in the context of multiple levitating objects, this technique will be harnessed to produce precisely balanced forces on individual elements, which will reduce thermal vibrations and collectively cool the system towards its motional ground state. By introducing a new toolbox, GROOVE offers to develop genuinely different control schemes that will open the door to many-body quantum physics in levitation. At a local level, GROOVE will benefit from a unique expertise in optical levitation present at LOMA and will serve to launch the scientific activity of the coordinator.