Related papers: Quantum nondemolition measurement of mechanical mo…
Interaction with a thermal environment decoheres the quantum state of a mechanical oscillator. When the interaction is sufficiently strong, such that more than one thermal phonon is introduced within a period of oscillation, quantum…
We describe an optomechanical system in which the mean phonon number of a single mechanical mode conditionally displaces the amplitude of the optical field. Using homodyne detection of the output field we establish the conditions under…
The ability to control the motion of mechanical systems through its interaction with light has opened the door to a plethora of applications in fundamental and applied physics. With experiments routinely reaching the quantum regime, the…
The coherent states that describe the classical motion of a mechanical oscillator do not have well-defined energy, but are rather quantum superpositions of equally-spaced energy eigenstates. Revealing this quantized structure is only…
We realise a simple and robust optomechanical system with a multitude of long-lived ($Q>10^7$) mechanical modes in a phononic-bandgap shielded membrane resonator. An optical mode of a compact Fabry-Perot resonator detects these modes'…
In the field of cavity optomechanics, proposals for quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements of phonon number provide a promising avenue by which one can study the quantum nature of nanoscale mechanical resonators. Here, we investigate…
Precision measurement of non-linear observables is an important goal in all facets of quantum optics. This allows measurement-based non-classical state preparation, which has been applied to great success in various physical systems, and…
We analyze quantum effects occurring in optomechanical systems where the coupling between an optical mode and a mechanical mode is quadratic in displacement (membrane-in-the-middle geometry). We show that it is possible to observe quantum…
Quantum control of engineered mechanical oscillators can be achieved by coupling the oscillator to an auxiliary degree of freedom, provided that the coherent rate of energy exchange exceeds the decoherence rate of each of the two…
Typical optomechanical systems involving optical cavities and mechanical oscillators rely on a coupling that varies linearly with the oscillator displacement. However, recently a coupling varying instead as the square of the mechanical…
Quantum opto- and electromechanical systems interface mechanical motion with the electromagnetic modes of optical resonators and microwave circuits. The capabilities and promise of these hybrid devices have been showcased through a variety…
A major goal in optomechanics is to observe and control quantum behavior in a system consisting of a mechanical resonator coupled to an optical cavity. Work towards this goal has focused on increasing the strength of the coupling between…
This paper studies quantum limits to dynamical sensors in the presence of decoherence. A modified purification approach is used to obtain tighter quantum detection and estimation error bounds for optical phase sensing and optomechanical…
While quantum mechanics exquisitely describes the behavior of microscopic systems, one ongoing challenge is to explore its applicability to systems of larger size and mass. Unfortunately, quantum states of increasingly macroscopic objects…
Optomechanics and electromechanics have made it possible to prepare macroscopic mechanical oscillators in their quantum ground states, in quadrature squeezed states, and in entangled states of motion. In addition to coaxing ever larger and…
In cavity optomechanics, nanomechanical motion couples to a localized optical mode. The regime of single-photon strong coupling is reached when the optical shift induced by a single phonon becomes comparable to the cavity linewidth. We…
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…
Mechanical oscillators can be cooled by coupling them to an optical or microwave cavity. Going beyond the standard quantum noise approach we find an analytic expression for the steady-state phonon number in systems where the position of the…
Demonstrating and exploiting the quantum nature of larger, more macroscopic mechanical objects would help us to directly investigate the limitations of quantum-based measurements and quantum information protocols, as well as test long…
Generation of non-Gaussian quantum states of macroscopic mechanical objects is key to a number of challenges in quantum information science, ranging from fundamental tests of decoherence to quantum communication and sensing. Heralded…