Heralded single-phonon preparation, storage, and readout in cavity optomechanics.
We show how to use the radiation pressure optomechanical coupling between a mechanical oscillator and an optical cavity field to generate in a heralded way a single quantum of mechanical motion (a Fock state). Starting with the oscillator close to its ground state, a laser pumping the upper motional sideband produces correlated photon-phonon pairs via optomechanical parametric down-conversion. Subsequent detection of a single scattered Stokes photon projects the macroscopic oscillator into a single-phonon Fock state. The nonclassical nature of this mechanical state can be demonstrated by applying a readout laser on the lower sideband to map the phononic state to a photonic mode and performing an autocorrelation measurement. Our approach proves the relevance of cavity optomechanics as an enabling quantum technology.
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Christophe
C
Galland
Group of Applied Physics, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland.
Nicolas
N
Sangouard
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nicolas
N
Piro
Group of Applied Physics, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland.
Nicolas
N
Gisin
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Tobias J
TJ
Kippenberg