  Cooling of the mechanical motion of a GaAs nano-membrane using the
photothermal effect mediated by excitons was recently demonstrated by some of
us [K. Usami, et al., Nature Phys. 8, 168 (2012)] and provides a clear example
of the use of thermal forces to cool down mechanical motion. Here, we report on
a single-free-parameter theoretical model to explain the results of this
experiment which matches the experimental data remarkably well.

Quantum Physics;Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics