Realization of an Optomechanical Interface Between Ultracold Atoms and a Membrane

Camerer, Stephan; Korppi, Maria; Jöckel, Andreas; Hunger, David; Hänsch, Theodor W.; Treutlein, Philipp

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.107.223001

Cited by 184 publications

(222 citation statements)

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“…An alternate line of research has been pursued in circuit and cavity optomechanics [15], where the position of a mechanical oscillator is coupled to the frequency of a high-Q electromagnetic resonance allowing for backaction cooling [16,17] and continuous position readout of the oscillator. Such optomechanical resonators have long been pursued as quantum-limited sensors of weak classical forces [9,15,[18][19][20], with more recent studies exploring optomechanical systems as quantum optical memories and amplifiers [21][22][23][24], quantum nonlinear dynamical elements [25], and quantum interfaces in hybrid quantum systems [26][27][28][29].Despite the major advances in circuit and cavity optomechanical systems made in the last few years, all experiments to date involving the cooling of mesoscopic mechanical oscillators have relied on careful measurement and calibration of the motion-induced scattering of light to obtain the average phonon occupancy of the oscillator, hni. Approach towards the quantum ground state in such experiments is manifest only as a weaker measured signal, with no evident demarcation between the classical and quantum regimes of the oscillator.…”

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Observation of Quantum Motion of a Nanomechanical Resonator

et al. 2012

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In this Letter we use resolved sideband laser cooling to cool a mesoscopic mechanical resonator to near its quantum ground state (phonon occupancy 2:6 AE 0:2), and observe the motional sidebands generated on a second probe laser. Asymmetry in the sideband amplitudes provides a direct measure of the displacement noise power associated with quantum zero-point fluctuations of the nanomechanical resonator, and allows for an intrinsic calibration of the phonon occupation number. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.033602 PACS numbers: 42.50.Wk, 42.65.Àk, 62.25.Àg Experiments with trapped ions and neutral atoms [1-3], dating back several decades, utilized techniques such as resolved sideband laser cooling and motional sideband absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy to cool and measure a single trapped particle in its vibrational quantum ground state. These experiments generated significant interest in the coherent control of motion and the quantum optics of trapped atoms and ions [4], and were important stepping stones towards the development of ion-trap based quantum computing [5,6]. Larger scale mechanical objects, such as fabricated nanomechanical resonators, have only recently been cooled close to their quantum mechanical ground state of motion [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. In a pioneering experiment by O'Connell, et al.[11], a piezoelectric nanomechanical resonator has been cryogenically cooled (T b $ 25 mK) to its vibrational ground state and strongly coupled to a superconducting circuit qubit allowing for quantum state preparation and readout of the mechanics. An alternate line of research has been pursued in circuit and cavity optomechanics [15], where the position of a mechanical oscillator is coupled to the frequency of a high-Q electromagnetic resonance allowing for backaction cooling [16,17] and continuous position readout of the oscillator. Such optomechanical resonators have long been pursued as quantum-limited sensors of weak classical forces [9,15,[18][19][20], with more recent studies exploring optomechanical systems as quantum optical memories and amplifiers [21][22][23][24], quantum nonlinear dynamical elements [25], and quantum interfaces in hybrid quantum systems [26][27][28][29].Despite the major advances in circuit and cavity optomechanical systems made in the last few years, all experiments to date involving the cooling of mesoscopic mechanical oscillators have relied on careful measurement and calibration of the motion-induced scattering of light to obtain the average phonon occupancy of the oscillator, hni. Approach towards the quantum ground state in such experiments is manifest only as a weaker measured signal, with no evident demarcation between the classical and quantum regimes of the oscillator. A crucial aspect of zero-point fluctuations (zpfs) of the quantum ground state is that they cannot supply energy, but can only contribute to processes where energy is absorbed by the mechanics. This is different from classical noise, and techniques that attempt to measure zero-point motion withou...

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Observation of Quantum Motion of a Nanomechanical Resonator

et al. 2012

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“…In a proof-of-principle experiment, we have observed the backaction of the atoms onto the membrane oscillator, as reported in Ref. [27]. The present article reviews these experiments, including a more detailed theoretical description of our system and a discussion of the conditions required to observe normal mode splitting.…”

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confidence: 91%

Hybrid atom-membrane optomechanics

Korppi

Jöckel

Rakher

et al. 2013

EPJ Web of Conferences

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Abstract. We report on the realization of a hybrid optomechanical system in which ultracold atoms are coupled to a micromechanical membrane. The atoms are trapped in the intensity maxima of an optical standing wave formed by retroreflection of a laser beam from the membrane surface. Vibrations of the membrane displace the standing wave, thus coupling to the center-of-mass motion of the atomic ensemble. Conversely, atoms imprint their motion onto the laser light, thereby modulating the radiation pressure force on the membrane. In this way, the laser light mediates a long-distance coherent coupling between the two systems. When the trap frequency of the atoms is matched to the membrane frequency, we observe resonant energy transfer. Moreover, we demonstrate sympathetic damping of the membrane motion by coupling it to laser-cooled atoms. Theoretical investigations show that the coupling strength can be considerably enhanced by placing the membrane inside an optical cavity. This could lead to quantum coherent coupling and ground-state cooling of the membrane via a distant atomic ensemble.

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“…It has been demonstrated that a large radiation pressure can be generated in the cavity that in return may lead to entanglement between different components of the system. In particular, stationary entanglement has been predicted between the cavity mode and a vibrating mirror [5][6][7][8][9], between an atomic ensemble or a Bose-Einstein condensate located inside an optical cavity and the vibrating mirror of the cavity [10][11][12][13], between two vibrating mirrors of a ring cavity [14], between two dielectric membranes suspended inside a cavity [15], and between a membrane and a trapped atom both located inside a cavity [16][17][18]. Further studies have addressed interesting problems of entangling mechanical oscillators [19], entangling optical and microwave cavity modes [20], and the creation of a photon by a vibrating mirror [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First-order coherence versus entanglement in a nanomechanical cavity

Sun

Ficek

2012

Phys. Rev. A

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The coherence and correlation properties of effective bosonic modes of a nano-mechanical cavity composed of an oscillating mirror and containing an optical lattice of regularly trapped atoms are studied. The system is modelled as a three-mode system, two orthogonal polariton modes representing the coupled optical lattice and the cavity mode, and one mechanical mode representing the oscillating mirror. We examine separately the cases of two-mode and three-mode interactions which are distinguished by a suitable tuning of the mechanical mode to the polariton mode frequencies. In the two-mode case, we find that the occurrence of entanglement in the system is highly sensitive to the presence of the first-order coherence between the modes. In particular, the creation of the first-order coherence among the polariton and mechanical modes is achieved at the expense of entanglement between them. In the three-mode case, we show that no entanglement is created between the independent polariton modes if both modes are coupled to the mechanical mode by the parametric interaction. There is no entanglement between the polaritons even if the oscillating mirror is damped by a squeezed vacuum field. The interaction creates the first-order coherence between the polaritons and the degree of coherence can, in principle, be as large as unity. This demonstrates that the oscillating mirror can establish the first-order coherence between two independent thermal modes. A further analysis shows that two independent thermal modes can be made entangled in the system only when one of the modes is coupled to the intermediate mode by a parametric interaction and the other is coupled by a linear-mixing interaction.

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Realization of an Optomechanical Interface Between Ultracold Atoms and a Membrane

Cited by 184 publications

References 31 publications

Observation of Quantum Motion of a Nanomechanical Resonator

Observation of Quantum Motion of a Nanomechanical Resonator

Hybrid atom-membrane optomechanics

First-order coherence versus entanglement in a nanomechanical cavity

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