Laser cooling a nanomechanical oscillator close to its
ground state

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and IBM Research Europe recently
demonstrated the laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator down
to its zero-point energy (i.e., the point at which it contains a
minimum amount of energy). Their successful demonstration, featured
in Physical Review Letters, could have important implications for
the development quantum technologies.