Ponderomotive control of quantum macroscopic coherence

Abstract

It is shown that because of the radiation pressure a Schrödinger cat state can be generated in a resonator with oscillating wall. The optomechanical control of quantum macroscopic coherence and its detection is taken into account introducing new cat states. The effects due to the environmental couplings with this nonlinear system are considered developing an operator perturbation procedure to solve the master equation for the field mode density operator. PACS number

Phase-noise measurement in a cavity with a movable mirror undergoing quantum Brownian motion

“…In this case, the atomic degrees of freedom are replaced by the motional degree of freedom of the movable mirror. Interesting quantum effects, as the generation of sub-Poissonian light [3], of Schrödinger cat states of both the cavity mode [4] and even of the mirror [5] have been already illustrated.…”

Sideband cooling of micromechanical motion to the quantum ground state

“…Simultaneously achieving strong coupling, ground state preparation and efficient measurement sets the stage for rapid advances in the control and detection of non-classical states of motion [17,18], possibly even testing quantum theory itself in the unexplored region of larger size and mass [19]. The universal ability to connect disparate physical systems through mechanical motion naturally leads towards future methods for engineering the coherent transfer of quantum information with widely different forms of quanta.Mechanical oscillators that are both decoupled from their environment (high quality factor Q) and placed in the quantum regime could allow us to explore quantum mechanics in entirely new ways [17][18][19][20][21]. For an oscillator to be in the quantum regime, it must be possible to prepare it in its ground state, to arbitrarily manipulate its quantum state, and to detect its state near the Heisenberg limit.…”

“…Furthermore, our device exhibits strong-coupling allowing coherent exchange of microwave photons and mechanical phonons [16]. Simultaneously achieving strong coupling, ground state preparation and efficient measurement sets the stage for rapid advances in the control and detection of non-classical states of motion [17,18], possibly even testing quantum theory itself in the unexplored region of larger size and mass [19]. The universal ability to connect disparate physical systems through mechanical motion naturally leads towards future methods for engineering the coherent transfer of quantum information with widely different forms of quanta.…”

“…Mechanical oscillators that are both decoupled from their environment (high quality factor Q) and placed in the quantum regime could allow us to explore quantum mechanics in entirely new ways [17][18][19][20][21]. For an oscillator to be in the quantum regime, it must be possible to prepare it in its ground state, to arbitrarily manipulate its quantum state, and to detect its state near the Heisenberg limit.…”

“…These prospects include a direct measurement of the zero-point motion, observation of the fundamental asymmetry between the rate of emission and absorption of phonons [1], quantum nondemolition measurements [3] and generation of entangled states of mechanical motion [17,18]. Furthermore, combining this device with a single-photon source and detector (such as a superconducting qubit [22,30]) would enable preparation of arbitrary quantum states of mechanical motion as well as observation of a single excitation as it Rabi oscillates between a 7 GHz photon and a 10 MHz phonon [20].…”