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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 19: Quantum dynamics, decoherence and quantum information

DY 19.2: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 25. März 2009, 17:15–17:30, ZEU 118

Quantum dynamics in dispersive optomechanics — •Georg Heinrich and Florian Marquardt — LMU, Department für Physik, Arnold-Sommerfeld Center, CeNS, Theresienstr. 37, 80333 München

Macroscopic mechanical objects can be coupled to electromagnetic fields through radiation pressure. These optomechanical setups are supposed to reveal quantum effects and allow to explore the interaction of light and matter in a new regime at the boundary between quantum and classical physics. The realization of a macroscopic object, cooled to its quantum mechanical ground state, seems to be within experimental reach. Nevertheless, the detection of its energy eigenstates poses fundamental challenges. One of the most promising setups in the field is a dispersively coupled system where a dielectric membrane is placed in the middle between two high-finesse mirrors. Apart from the experimental advantage of separating mechanical and optical units, in principle, this approach allows Fock state detection and QND measurements. Here, we investigate cavity-photon dynamics of such a system in the regime where the timescale for photon exchange, between the two cavity halves, becomes comparable to the mechanical oscillation period. We discuss arising mechanical sidebands in the cavity spectrum that produce hybridized states which are superpositions of optical excitations in both sides of the cavity, with states that include phonons in the membrane. This will have implications on Fock state detection and might as well be relevant for other systems such as mechanical objects coupled to superconducting cavities.