Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 227, 1885–1895 (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2018-800065-2

Review

Ground state cooling of nanomechanical resonators by electron transport

¹ Zukunftskolleg, Universität Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
² Fachbereich Physik, Universität Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

^a e-mail: gianluca.rastelli@uni-konstanz.de

Received: 16 April 2018
Received in final form: 8 September 2018
Published online: 24 January 2019

Abstract

We discuss two theoretical proposals for controlling the nonequilibrium steady state of nanomechanical resonators using quantum electronic transport. Specifically, we analyse two approaches to achieve the ground-state cooling of the mechanical vibration coupled to a quantum dot embedded between (i) spin-polarised contacts or (ii) a normal metal and a superconducting contact. Assuming a suitable coupling between the vibrational modes and the charge or spin of the electrons in the quantum dot, we show that ground-state cooling of the mechanical oscillator is within the state of the art for suspended carbon nanotube quantum dots operating as electromechanical devices.