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，并解决了NSF“宇宙之窗”大理念的优先领域。量子力学是为了研究原子尺度上物理系统的行为而发明的。在过去的世纪里，对自然界量子基础的理解导致了对亚原子世界的基本理解，以及从激光到磁共振成像到纳米医学的丰富的量子技术。拟议的工作建立在纳米技术和精密测量的进步的基础上，以推动理解宇宙的基本性质以及开发用于精密测量的量子传感技术的前沿。通过使用强激光束的辐射压力来推动镜子，光的精致量子特性可以印在镜子的机械运动上。反过来，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的和实际有用的量子态，提供了热驱动的运动的镜子是smallen.The拟议的工作耦合激光到一个新的定制设计的宏观镜，具有低热噪声。 所提出的工作的一个目标是光学捕获和冷却宏观镜。这将使科学家们提出一个有趣的问题：是否存在一个量子力学不再起作用的尺度？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创造一种奇特的光量子态，称为“压缩态”。光的压缩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。拟议工作的一个显着特点是，它是在室温下进行的，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检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，结合了量子光学，光学力学和量子测量科学与引力波探测的技术和形式主义。因此，它推动了多个领域的发展，培训具有广泛技能的人员，使他们成为具有量子专业知识的技术劳动力的一部分，这在学术界，政府和私营部门中越来越受欢迎。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估而被认为值得支持。

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.