No Arabic abstract
We analyze magnetometry using an optically levitated nanodiamond. We consider a configuration where a magnetic field gradient couples the mechanical oscillation of the diamond with its spin degree of freedom provided by a Nitrogen vacancy center. First, we investigate measurement of the position spectrum of the mechanical oscillator. We find that conditions of ultrahigh vacuum and feedback cooling allow a magnetic field gradient sensitivity of 1 $mu$Tm$^{-1}$/$sqrt{mbox{Hz}}$. At high pressure and room temperature, this sensitivity degrades and can attain a value of the order of 100 $m$Tm$^{-1}$/$sqrt{mbox{Hz}}$. Subsequently, we characterize the magnetic field gradient sensitivity obtainable by maneuvering the spin degrees of freedom using Ramsey interferometry. We find that this technique can offer photon-shot noise and spin-projection noise limited magnetic field gradient sensitivity of 100 $mu$Tm$^{-1}$/$sqrt{mbox{Hz}}$. We conclude that this hybrid levitated nanomechanical magnetometer provides a favorable and versatile platform for sensing applications.
Nonclassical optomechanical correlations enable optical control of mechanical motion beyond the limitations of classical driving. Here we investigate the feasibility of using pulsed cavity-optomechanics to create and verify nonclassical phase-sensitive correlations between light and the motion of a levitated nanoparticle in a realistic scenario. We show that optomechanical two-mode squeezing can persist even at the elevated temperatures of state-of-the-art experimental setups. We introduce a detection scheme based on optical homodyning that allows revealing nonclassical correlations without full optomechanical state tomography. We provide an analytical treatment using the rotating wave approximation (RWA) in the resolved-sideband regime and prove its validity with a full numerical solution of the Lyapunov equation beyond the RWA. We build on parameters of current experiments for our analysis and conclude that the observation of nonclassical correlations is possible today.
We describe a proposal for a new type of optomechanical system based on a drop of liquid helium that is magnetically levitated in vacuum. In the proposed device, the drop would serve three roles: its optical whispering gallery modes would provide the optical cavity, its surface vibrations would constitute the mechanical element, and evaporation of He atoms from its surface would provide continuous refrigeration. We analyze the feasibility of such a system in light of previous experimental demonstrations of its essential components: magnetic levitation of mm-scale and cm-scale drops of liquid He, evaporative cooling of He droplets in vacuum, and coupling to high-quality optical whispering gallery modes in a wide range of liquids. We find that the combination of these features could result in a device that approaches the single-photon strong coupling regime, due to the high optical quality factors attainable at low temperatures. Moreover, the system offers a unique opportunity to use optical techniques to study the motion of a superfluid that is freely levitating in vacuum (in the case of $^{4}mathrm {He}$). Alternatively, for a normal fluid drop of $^3 mathrm{He}$, we propose to exploit the coupling between the drops rotations and vibrations to perform quantum non-demolition measurements of angular momentum.
We theoretically explore a quantum memory using a single nanoparticle levitated in an optical dipole trap and subjected to feedback cooling. This protocol is realized by storing and retrieving a single photon quantum state from a mechanical mode in levitated cavityless optomechanics. We describe the effectiveness of the photon-phonon-photon transfer in terms of the fidelity, the Wigner function, and the zero-delay second-order autocorrelation function. For experimentally accessible parameters, our numerical results indicate robust conversion of the quantum states of the input signal photon to those of the retrieved photon. We also show that high fidelity single-photon wavelength conversion is possible in the system as long as intense control pulses shorter than the mechanical damping time are used. Our work opens up the possibility of using levitated optomechanical systems for applications of quantum information processing.
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 gravitational wave detection to measure weak forces on test masses by high precision monitoring of their motion. Now, such techniques have become an indispensable tool in quantum science for preparing, manipulating, and detecting quantum states of light, atoms, and other quantum systems. Here we experimentally perform rapid optical quantum-noise-limited measurements of the position of a mechanical oscillator by using pulses of light with a duration much shorter than a period of mechanical motion. Using this back-action evading interaction we performed both state preparation and full state tomography of the mechanical motional state. We have reconstructed mechanical states with a position uncertainty reduced to 19 pm, limited by the quantum fluctuations of the optical pulse, and we have performed `cooling-by-measurement to reduce the mechanical mode temperature from an initial 1100 K to 16 K. Future improvements to this technique may allow for quantum squeezing of mechanical motion, even from room temperature, and reconstruction of non-classical states exhibiting negative regions in their phase-space quasi-probability distribution.
Ultra-high sensitivity detection of quantum-scale displacements in cavity optomechanics optimises the combined errors from measurement back-action and imprecisions from incoming quantum noises. This sets the well-known Standard Quantum Limit (SQL). Normal quantum cavity optomechanics allows cooling and detection of a single degree of freedom, along the cavity axis. However, a recent breakthrough that allows quantum ground-state cooling of levitated nanoparticles [Delic et al, arxiv:1911.04406], is uniquely 3D in character, with coupling along the $x$, $y$ and $z$ axes. We investigate current experiments and show that the underlying behaviour is far from the addition of independent 1D components and that ground-state cooling and sensing analysis must consider- to date neglected- 3D hybridisation effects. We characterise the additional 3D spectral contributions and find direct and indirect hybridising pathways can destructively interfere suppressing of 3D effects at certain parameters in order to approach, and possibly surpass, the SQL. We identify a sympathetic cooling mechanism that can enhance cooling of weaker coupled modes, arising from optomechanically induced correlations.