Abstract

In 40 years, the paradigm of laser cooling has solidly established as the method of reference for controlling mechanical motion down to the quantum level [1]. Its principle essentially relies on the interaction between a mechanical system and a resonant degree of freedom that can efficiently harvest the mechanical energy. In this work, we demonstrate the first dynamical backaction cooling mechanism that is not mediated by a resonant interaction [2]. Using a focused electron beam, we report a 50-fold reduction of the motional temperature of a nanowire. Our result primarily relies on the sub-nanometer confinement of the electron beam and generalizes the phenomenology of cavity optomechanics [3] to any delayed and topologically confined interaction, with important consequences for near-field microscopy and fundamental nanoscale dissipation mechanisms.

© 2015 IEEE