Cooling of a micro-mechanical resonator by the back-action of Lorentz force

Abstract

Using a semi-classical approach, we describe an on-chip cooling protocol for a micro-mechanical resonator by employing a superconducting flux qubit. A Lorentz force, generated by the passive back-action of the resonator's displacement, can cool down the thermal motion of the mechanical resonator by applying an appropriate microwave drive to the qubit. We show that this on-chip cooling protocol, with well-controlled cooling power and a tunable response time of passive back-action, can be highly efficient. With feasible experimental parameters, the effective mode temperature of a resonator could be cooled down by several orders of magnitude.