Realising Einstein's mirror: Optomechanical damping with a thermal photon gas

Abstract

In 1909 Einstein described the thermalization of a mirror within a blackbody cavity by collisions with thermal photons. While the time to thermalize the motion of even a microscale or nanoscale object is so long that it is not feasible, we show that it is using the high intensity light from an amplified thermal light source with a well-defined chemical potential. We predict damping of the center-of mass motion due to this effect on times scales of seconds for small optomechanical systems, such as levitated nanoparticles, allowing experimental observation.