Microwave Quantum Optomechanics
Final Report Abstract
A mechanical resonator is a physicist’s most tangible example of a harmonic oscillator. If cooled to sufficiently low temperatures a mechanical oscillator is expected to behave differently to our classical perception of reality. Examples include entanglement and superposition states where a macroscopic, human made object can be in two places at once. Observing the quantum behavior of a mechanical oscillator is challenging because it is difficult both to prepare the oscillator in a pure quantum state of motion and to detect those states. This experimental work was intended to explore both of these challenges. During this research stay we carried out experiments in which we coupled the motion of a microfabricated oscillator to the microwave field in a superconducting high-Q resonant circuit. The displacement of the oscillator imprints a phase modulation on the microwave field which we detect with a novel, nearly shot-noise limited microwave interferometer. We achieve a measurement imprecision below that at the standard quantum limit. We employ the radiation pressure force of the microwave photons to cool the mechanical oscillator to its motional ground state, thereby entering the quantum regime of an optomechanical system for the first time.
Publications
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Nanomechanical motion measured with an imprecision below that at the standard quantum limit, Nature Nanotechnology 4, 820 (2009)
J.D. Teufel, T. Donner, M.A. Castellanos-Beltran, J.W. Harlow, K.W. Lehnert
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DAMOP, Houston 2010: "Strings and Drums - Microwave Cavity Optomechanics"
J.D. Teufel
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Gordon research conference on Mechanical Systems in the Quantum Regime, Galveston 2010: "Introduction into Macro-Optomechanics"
J.D. Teufel
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Physics Colloquium of ETH Zurich and University of Zurich, 2010: "Listening to the Quantum Drum - Mechanics in its Ground State"
J.D. Teufel
