Creating and verifying a quantum superposition in a micro-optomechanical system

Kleckner, Dustin; Pikovski, Igor; Jeffrey, E.; Ament, L. J. P.; Eliel, E. R.; Brink, Jeroen van den; Bouwmeester, Dirk

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/10/9/095020

Cited by 140 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

158

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Another example for quantum state preparation is that, even though the optomechanical interaction used here is linear with the mechanical position, by exploiting the optical non-linearity, X 2 M measurements with a strength significantly larger than that attainable with dispersive optomechanics can be performed [48]. An X 2 M measurement can be used to conditionally prepare highly non-Guassian mechanical superposition states and experimentally characterizing the decoherence of such states is important to determine the feasibility of using mechanical elements for coherent quantum applications and can also be used to empirically test collapse models [49][50][51][52]. The pulsed measurements performed here may also be utilized for a QND-measurement-based lightmechanics quantum interface [53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooling-by-measurement and mechanical state tomography via pulsed optomechanics

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Observing a physical quantity without disturbing it is a key capability for the control of individual quantum systems. Such back-action-evading or quantum-non-demolition measurements were first introduced in the 1970s in the context of gravitational wave detection to measure weak forces on test masses by high precision monitoring of their motion. Now, such techniques have become an indispensable tool in quantum science for preparing, manipulating, and detecting quantum states of light, atoms, and other quantum systems. Here we experimentally perform rapid optical quantumnoise-limited measurements of the position of a mechanical oscillator by using pulses of light with a duration much shorter than a period of mechanical motion. Using this back-action evading interaction we performed both state preparation and full state tomography of the mechanical motional state. We have reconstructed mechanical states with a position uncertainty reduced to 19 pm, limited by the quantum fluctuations of the optical pulse, and we have performed 'cooling-by-measurement' to reduce the mechanical mode temperature from an initial 1100 K to 16 K. Future improvements to this technique may allow for quantum squeezing of mechanical motion, even from room temperature, and reconstruction of non-classical states exhibiting negative regions in their phase-space quasi-probability distribution.Experiments are now beginning to investigate nonclassical motion of massive mechanical devices [1][2][3]. This opens up new perspectives for quantum-physics enhanced applications and for tests of the foundations of physics. A versatile approach to manipulate mechanical states of motion is provided by the interaction with electromagnetic radiation, typically confined to microwave or optical cavities. Such cavity-optomechanics experiments [4][5][6][7][8] have thus far largely concentrated on high sensitivity continuous monitoring of the mechanical position [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Because of the back-action imparted by the probe onto the measured object, the precision of such a measurement is fundamentally constrained by the standard quantum limit (SQL) [15,16], and therefore only allows for classical phase-space reconstruction [9,17,18]. In order to observe quantum mechanical features that are smaller than the mechanical zero-point motion, backaction-evading measurement techniques that can surpass the SQL [19,20] are required. Following the early insights of Braginsky, beating the standard quantum limit 'can be achieved only in one way: design the probe so it "sees" only the measured observable ' [15]. Such backaction evading techniques were first realized for the detection of optical quadratures [21][22][23] and have since been used for, e.g. precision measurement of atomic ensemble spin [24][25][26][27][28] and quantum non-demolition microwave photon counting [29]. In optomechanics, to perform a back-action evading measurement of the mechanical position, a time-dependent measurement scheme is required. One prominent example is the so-called 'two-tone app...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooling-by-measurement and mechanical state tomography via pulsed optomechanics

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This device, driven by a single photon, was proposed by Marshall et al [8,9] as an experiment to search for Penrose's conjecture of gravity decoherence [10]. Such single-photon driven devices have also been more recently studied by Rabl [11] and Nunnenkamp et al [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open quantum dynamics of single-photon optomechanical devices

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We study the quantum dynamics of a Michelson interferometer with Fabry-Perot cavity arms and one movable end mirror, and driven by a single photon-an optomechanical device previously studied by Marshall et al. as a device that searches for gravity decoherence. We obtain an exact analytical solution for the system's quantum mechanical equations of motion, including details about the exchange of the single photon between the cavity mode and the external continuum. The resulting time evolution of the interferometer's fringe visibility displays interesting new features when the incoming photon's frequency uncertainty is narrower or comparable to the cavity's line width-only in the limiting case of much broader-band photon does the result return to that of Marshall et al., but in this case the photon is not very likely to enter the cavity and interact with the mirror, making the experiment less efficient and more susceptible to imperfections. In addition, we show that in the strong-coupling regime, by engineering the incoming photon's wave function, it is possible to prepare the movable mirror into an arbitrary quantum state of a multidimensional Hilbert space.

show abstract

“…These include, for example, quantum entanglement [8][9][10][11][12][13], Schrödinger cat states [14][15][16][17], and the modification of uncertainty relations due to quantum gravity [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark states of a moving mirror in the single-photon strong-coupling regime

Law

2013

Phys. Rev. A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigate an optomechanical system in which a cavity with a moving mirror is driven by two external fields. When the field frequencies match resonance conditions, we show that there exists a class of dark states of the moving mirror in the single-photon strong-coupling regime. These dark states, which cause the cavity to be decoupled from the external fields, is a manifestation of quantum coherence associated with the mirror's mechanical degrees of freedom. We discuss the properties of the dark states and indicate how they can be generated by optical pumping due to the decay of cavity field.

show abstract

Creating and verifying a quantum superposition in a micro-optomechanical system

Cited by 140 publications

References 52 publications

Cooling-by-measurement and mechanical state tomography via pulsed optomechanics

Cooling-by-measurement and mechanical state tomography via pulsed optomechanics

Open quantum dynamics of single-photon optomechanical devices

Dark states of a moving mirror in the single-photon strong-coupling regime

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About