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Realizing Einstein's Mirror: Optomechanical Damping with a Thermal Photon Gas
A T M Anishur Rahman1, P F Barker1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, WC1E 6BT London, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Einstein described the damping and thermalization of the center-of-mass motion of a mirror placed inside a blackbody cavity by collisions with thermal photons. While the time for damping even a microscale or nanoscale object is so long that it is not experimentally viable, we show that this damping is feasible using the high-intensity light from an amplified thermal light source with a well-defined chemical potential. We predict this damping of the center-of-mass motion will occur on timescales of tens of seconds for small optomechanical systems.
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