Abstract

We study hybrid optical cooling of rare-earth-doped mesoscopic crystals via the anti-Stokes fluorescence and collective photon recoil effect inside them. The proposed cooling scheme, composed of a radio-frequency trap and a three-dimensional optical potential, makes it possible to cool doped nanocrystals down to an external temperature of ${10}^{-8}\mathrm{K}$. By achieving the mechanical action values of $\sim 10\hslash$, we come close to the macroscopic quantum states of a solid matter. Such deep translational cooling of nanocrystals paves the way to fundamental studies on the solid state and to applications in low-temperature chemistry and biophysics.

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