Cavity cooling of a mechanical resonator in the presence of two-level-system defects

Abstract

Cavity cooling via quantum backaction force can extract thermal fluctuations from a mechanical resonator to reach the quantum ground state. Surface or bulk two-level-system (TLS) defects in a mechanical resonator can couple with the mechanical mode via deformation potential and affect the cooling process significantly. Here, we develop a theory to study the cavity cooling of a mechanical mode in the presence of a TLS defect using the adiabatic elimination technique. Our result shows that the cooling process depends strongly on the resonance and the damping rate of the TLS.