Abstract

Optomechanical systems are suitable for realizing the ground-state cooling of macroscopic objects. Based on a dynamical approach that goes beyond the validity of the standard linearization approach, we simulate the detailed cooling processes for a membrane-in-middle optomechanical system. In addition to the cooling results, we especially study the cooling speed, which is indicated by how soon the first minimum thermal phonon number is reached. Their relevance to the system parameters provides essential knowledge about how to achieve the best and/or fastest cooling under various combinations of different driving fields.