Transient Quantum Optomechanics

这项工作旨在通过辐射压力力将光相干耦合到宏观机械振子，并在这样的光学机械系统中探索光与机械振子之间的量子纠缠。该项目的具体目标包括在其运动基态附近制备宏观机械振子，并通过双模压缩光机械过程将机械振子与光纠缠。实验工作将集中在瞬时而不是稳态的光力学相互作用的研究上，与机械消相干时间相比，这应该能够在更短的时间尺度内实现纠缠操作。该项目还将开发具有高机械品质因数、超高光学精细度以及强光学机械耦合的光机谐振器。一个特别的重点是实现一个隔离良好的光学机械系统，用于在一个原本是经典的机械系统中探索宏观量子现象。这项工作为教育和人力资源做出了贡献，在科学和技术两个重要领域为研究生和本科生提供了出色的培训。量子力学作为一种基础理论，描述了电子、原子和分子的微观世界，并预测了奇怪或奇怪的行为，如量子叠加和量子纠缠。现在已经在各种微观系统中实现了对这些量子行为的精细控制。然而，将量子力学应用于宏观世界中的其他经典对象或系统，会遇到概念和技术问题。本项目开发的光机系统为我们研究宏观力学系统中的量子行为提供了一个特殊的实验平台。在这样的系统中，人们可以通过利用光和机械运动之间的相互作用来控制机械运动，直到量子区域。将量子行为的研究和控制扩展到这个宏观系统，可能会揭示量子世界和经典世界之间的边界，也可能对量子技术的发展产生重大影响，例如量子信息处理和精密或超灵敏测量。

This work aims to coherently couple light to a macroscopic mechanical oscillator via a radiation pressure force and to explore quantum entanglement between light and the mechanical oscillator in such an optomechanical system. Specific objectives of the project include preparing a macroscopic mechanical oscillator near its motional ground state and entangling the mechanical oscillator with light through a two-mode-squeezing optomechanical process. The experimental effort will focus on the study of transient, instead of steady-state, optomechanical interactions, which should enable entanglement operations in a timescale short compared with the mechanical decoherence time. The project will also develop optomechanical resonators that can feature high mechanical quality factor, ultrahigh optical finesse, as well as strong optomechanical coupling. A particular emphasis is to realize a well-isolated optomechanical system for exploring macroscopic quantum phenomena in an otherwise classical mechanical system. This work makes contributions to education and human resource by providing excellent training to graduate and undergraduate students in areas of both scientific and technological importance.Quantum mechanics, as a fundamental theory, describes the microscopic world of electrons, atoms and molecules and predicts strange or weird behaviors, such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement. Exquisite control of these quantum behaviors has now been achieved in a variety of microscopic systems. Applying quantum mechanics to otherwise classical objects or systems in the macroscopic world, however, encounters both conceptual and technical issues. The optomechanical system developed in this project provides us a specific experimental platform for investigating quantum behaviors in a macroscopic mechanical system. In such a system, one can control the mechanical motion down to the quantum regime by exploiting the interaction between light and the mechanical motion. Extending the study and control of quantum behaviors to this macroscopic system can potentially shed light on the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds and can also have significant impact on the development of quantum technologies such as such as quantum information processing and precision or ultra-sensitive measurements.