Simultaneous cooling of all six degrees of freedom of an optically levitated nanoparticle by elliptic coherent scattering

Abstract: We report on strong cooling and orientational control of all translational and angular degrees of freedom of a nanoparticle levitated in an optical trap in high vacuum. The motional cooling and control of all six degrees of freedom of a nanoparticle levitated by an optical tweezer is accomplished using coherent elliptic scattering within a high finesse optical cavity. Translational temperatures in the 100 $\mu$K range were reached while temperatures as low as 5 mK were attained in the librational degrees of freedom. This work represents an important milestone in controlling all observable degrees of freedom of a levitated particle and opens up future applications in quantum science and the study of single isolated nanoparticles.