Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 57: Optomechanics II

Q 57.6: Talk

Thursday, March 26, 2015, 15:45–16:00, P/H1

pulsed optical measurement of mechanical displacements close to the standard quantum limit — •sungkun hong¹, ralf riedinger¹, alex krause², oskar painter², and markus aspelmeyer¹ — ¹Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ), Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria — ²Thomas J. Watson, Sr., Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

Quantum-non-demolition (QND) measurement of massive mechanical objects is an outstanding problem in quantum physics. As a promising route, the optomechanical scheme employing a series of short optical pulses [1,2] has been recently investigated. Here, we present a significant step towards realizing QND detection of mechanical displacements using this method. We employ a micro-fabricated optomechanical crystal and a high-speed homodyne detection setup to demonstrate the displacement measurement with its imprecision close to the mechanical zero-point fluctuation. We discuss further possibilities of the scheme, which include a full state tomography and generation of squeezed mechanical states beyond the standard quantum limit.

[1] M. R. Vanner, I. Pikovski, G. D. Cole, M. S. Kim, C. Brukner, K. Hammerer, G. J. Milburn, and M. Aspelmeyer, Pulsed quantum optomechanics, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., vol. 108, no. 39, pp. 16182-7, 2011 [2] M. R. Vanner, J. Hofer, G. D. Cole, and M. Aspelmeyer, Cooling-by-measurement and mechanical state tomography via pulsed optomechanics., Nat. Commun., vol. 4, p. 2295, 2013