Coherent Feedback Cooling of an Ultracoherent Phononic-Crystal Membrane at Room Temperature

Optomechanical systems provide a versatile platform for precision measurements and investigations of fundamental physics, where bringing macroscopic resonators into the quantum regime is a widely pursued goal. Achieving such quantum behavior of solid-state mechanical resonators at room temperature would greatly broaden their applications by removing the need for cryogenic environments. Reaching this goal requires efficient cooling of mechanical motion, among various laser cooling methods, dynamical backaction cooling (DBC) is widely utilized in experiments but fundamentally limited when operating in the sideband-unresolved regime. Coherent feedback cooling (CFC) can overcome this limitation, while avoiding state collapse and the electronic restrictions inherent to measurement-based feedback. Here, we experimentally demonstrate CFC using an ultracoherent density phononic crystal membrane. By combining CFC with strong DBC in a relatively narrow cavity, we achieve a phonon occupation reduction from 5.5times10⁶ to 166pm7, corresponding to a cooling factor of 3.3times10⁴ at room temperature, even with current experimental limitations. Our results show the potential of CFC for approaching the ground state of high-Q membranes at room temperature.