Towards all-optical optomechanics: An optical spring mirror

The dominant hurdle to the operation of optomechanical systems in the quantum regime is the coupling of the vibrating element to a thermal reservoir via mechanical supports. Here we propose a scheme that uses an optical spring to replace the mechanical support. We show that the resolved-sideband regime of cooling can be reached in a configuration using a high-reflectivity disk mirror held by an optical tweezer as one of the end-mirrors of a Fabry-Perot cavity. We find a final phonon occupation number of the trapped mirror \({\bar n}\)= 0.14 for reasonable parameters, well within the quantum regime. This demonstrates the promise of dielectric disks attached to optical springs for the observation of quantum effects in macroscopic objects.