Mechanical Dissipation: Fundamentals and Mitigation

This lecture covers the fundamentals of mechanical dissipation, including its origin and implications in cavity quantum optomechanics. Topics include quantifying dissipation effects, contributions from the surrounding medium, acoustic radiation, and loss in the resonator material. Various mitigation strategies are discussed, such as low-pressure operation and engineering geometry. The lecture also explores the impact of radiation loss, clamping loss, intrinsic loss, thermoelastic damping, two-level systems (TLS), and dissipation dilution. Different mechanisms contributing to mechanical damping are analyzed, emphasizing the importance of mitigating them for achieving low dissipation and high quality (Q) factors. Material properties, geometry, and temperature play a crucial role in determining the level of mechanical dissipation.