Translational cooling of doped nanocrystals by Raman pulses: Towards macroscopic quantum state

One of the most interesting problems of modern physics is the realization of nanoparticles in macroscopic quantum states, in which they behave as a quantum objects. These states can only be implemented at ultra-low translational temperatures that have not been achieved so far. Here we develop a novel method for optical cooling of CaF₂:Yb³⁺ nanocrystals, which is based on the coherent population transfer induced in the impurity ions by ultraviolet Raman pulses. A doped nanocrystal localized in a radio-frequency trap is cooled due to the photon recoil from the pulses of varied intensity. The proposed method allows to obtain nanocrystals with translational temperatures of the order of 10^?9 K, which indicates that the nanocrystal approaches a macroscopic quantum state.