Quantum-coherent coupling of light to micromechanical motion
Event details
| Date | 08.06.2012 |
| Hour | 14:00 |
| Speaker |
Dr. E. Verhagen, Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements - EPFL co authors: S. Deléglise, S. Weis, A. Schliesser, and T. J. Kippenberg |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Optical laser fields have been widely used to achieve quantum control over the motional and internal degrees of freedom of atoms and ions, molecules and atomic gases. A route to controlling the quantum states of macroscopic mechanical oscillators in a similar fashion is to exploit the parametric coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom through radiation pressure in suitably engineered optical cavities. If the optomechanical coupling is ‘quantum coherent’, i.e., if the coherent coupling rate exceeds both the optical and the mechanical decoherence rate, quantum states are transferred from the optical field to the mechanical oscillator and vice versa, thus allowing control of the mechanical oscillator state using the wide range of available quantum optical techniques. We experimentally demonstrate quantum-coherent coupling between optical photons and a micromechanical oscillator. The optomechanical system is a silica toroidal whispering gallery mode microresonator embedded in a He-3 cryogenic environment. Coupling to the cold photon bath simultaneously cools the mechanical oscillator close to the quantum ground state of motion, with an average occupancy of 1.7±0.1 motional quanta. These results provide a route towards the realization of efficient quantum interfaces between mechanical oscillators and optical fields.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- ICMP
Contact
- Arnaud Magrez