Quantum Optomechanics: From Fundamental Tests to Quantum Tools of the Future

该奖项支持相对论和相对论天体物理学的研究，并阐述了美国国家科学基金会“宇宙之窗”宏伟构想的优先领域。量子力学的发明是为了在原子尺度上研究物理系统的行为。在过去的一个世纪里，对自然界量子基础的理解带来了对亚原子世界的基本理解，以及从激光到磁共振成像再到纳米医学的丰富的量子使能技术图景。拟议的工作建立在纳米技术和精密测量的进步基础上，以推动理解宇宙基本性质以及开发用于精密测量的量子传感技术的前沿。通过利用强激光的辐射压力力推动反射镜，可以将光的精致量子属性印在反射镜的机械运动上。光本身又被用来读出镜子的位置。这种光镜耦合可以用来产生有趣和实用的量子态，只要反射镜的热驱动运动足够小。这项拟议工作的一个目标是对宏观镜面进行光学捕获和冷却。这将允许科学家提出一个耐人寻味的问题：量子力学是否存在一个不再适用的尺度？尽管量子力学通常适用于微观世界，但为什么自然界会有一个特殊的尺寸尺度？第二个更实际的目标是利用光镜相互作用来创造一种奇特的量子光状态，称为“压缩状态”。光的压缩状态被用来提高光学测量的精度，例如LIGO用来探测引力波的激光干涉测量。利用光镜耦合产生的压缩态可能非常适合于提高未来引力波探测器的灵敏度。拟议工作的一个显著特点是，它在室温下进行，没有大量的基础设施和低温冷却的成本，使这些设备更适合在从引力波探测到量子信息技术的广泛应用中提高量子传感器的灵敏度。这项工作本质上是跨学科的，将量子光学、光学机械和量子测量科学的技术和形式与引力波探测结合在一起。因此，它推进了多个领域的发展，培训具有广泛技能的人员，为他们成为具有量子专业知识的技术队伍的一部分做好准备，这在学术界、政府和私营部门越来越受到追捧。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports research in relativity and relativistic astrophysics and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. Quantum mechanics was invented to study the behavior of physical systems at the atomic scale. In the past century, understanding the quantum foundations of nature has led to fundamental understanding of the subatomic world, as well as a rich landscape of quantum-enabled technologies, from lasers to magnetic resonance imaging to nanomedicine. The proposed work builds on advances in nanotechnology and precision measurement to push the frontier of both understanding the fundamental nature of the universes, as well as development of quantum sensing technologies for precision measurement. By using the radiation pressure force from intense laser beams to push on mirrors, the exquisite quantum properties of the light can be imprinted onto the mechanical motion of the mirrors. The light itself, in turn, is used to read out the position of the mirror. This light-mirror coupling can be used to generate interesting and practically useful quantum states, provided the thermally driven motion of the mirror is small enough.The proposed work couples laser light to a novel custom-designed macroscopic mirror that has low thermal noise. One goal of the proposed work is to optically trap and cool a macroscopic mirror. This would allow scientists to ask the intriguing question: is there a size scale on which quantum mechanics no longer works? Even though quantum mechanics usually applies to the microscopic world, why would nature have a special size scale? A second, more practical, goal is to use the light-mirror interactions to create an exotic quantum state of light called a "squeezed state.” Squeezed states of light are used to increase the precision of optical measurements, such as the laser interferometry used by LIGO to detect gravitational waves. Squeezed states generated using light-mirror coupling could be well-suited for improving the sensitivity of future gravitational-wave detectors. A notable feature of the proposed work is that it is carried out at room temperature, without the substantial infrastructure and cost of cryogenic cooling, making these devices better suited for enhancing the sensitivity of quantum sensors in a wide range of applications from gravitational-wave detection to quantum information technologies. This work is inherently cross-disciplinary, combining the techniques and formalism of quantum optics, optomechanics, and quantum measurement science with gravitational-wave detection. It therefore advances multiple fields, training personnel with a broad range of skills that prepares them to be part of a technical workforce with quantum expertise, which is increasingly sought after in academia, the government and the private sector.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.