Radiation pressure excitation and cooling of a cryogenic MEMS-cavity

The mechanical interaction of light with small but macroscopic oscillators, mediated by radiation pressure, has been investigated since the '70ies. Several theoretical studies have proposed schemes exploiting such interaction at the quantum level. The phenomena analyzed include pondero-motive squeezing, quantum non-demolition measurements, entanglement between radiation field and mechanical oscillators. The interest of this field of research extends from fundamental physics to applications in sensitive position and motion measurements. In spite of such enormous interest and variety of theoretical studies, no quantum effect has ever been shown experimentally, due to the extreme weakness of the phenomena and the overwhelming action of thermal noise. Our work represents a step toward the main goal of revealing such feeble quantum effects.