Levitated Electromechanics: All-Electrical Nanoscale Control and Cooling (LEVELECTRO)

**背景下的研究**技术正在不断微型化，随着它达到纳米级，我们面临着独特的挑战。我们如何控制这么小的物体呢？当温度波动与我们的设备具有相同的能量尺度时会发生什么？另一方面，一些原子、离子和固态量子比特的量子物理的进步意味着我们越来越希望扩大量子系统的规模，或者将它们与纳米级技术相结合。近年来，纳米和微机械设备在量子水平上得到了控制，这是一个惊人的进步，甚至允许光和机械运动之间的纠缠。然而，所有这样的小系统都受到不可避免的环境影响的限制，例如与环境的热接触和通过应变而产生的能量耗散。这限制了机械装置在经典和量子技术中的参与。通过使用悬浮的纳米颗粒作为机械装置，这些问题被克服了。LEVELECTRO将率先将悬浮纳米物体与电子电路集成在一起，实现电冷却和联网。这种超低损耗系统提供了精致的力敏感度。LEVELECTRO将通过在极端真空中工作，在纳米尺度上阐明热力学，来探索新的物理学领域。这项独特的研究将使悬浮纳米物体能够作为长寿命量子存储设备以及光学和电子量子信号之间的高保真换能器参与量子技术。**目标和应用*AIM 1-全电纳米颗粒控制平台：LEVELECTRO引入了一个新平台，将悬浮纳米颗粒耦合到电路上，建立了悬浮机电(LE)场。LE将允许完全电子控制和冷却纳米颗粒的运动，避免在光学悬浮中遇到的有害散射和吸收。电冷却消除了热能，而热能掩盖了悬浮颗粒对环境的敏感性，因此冷却增强了LE平台作为传感器的能力。*目标2-超低耗散联网设备：预计在真空中悬浮的纳米颗粒具有所有机械物体中最高的机械品质因数。这样一个悬浮的纳米粒子就像一个小钟摆，原则上如果你踢它一脚，它需要几个月的时间才能停下来。这种行为还没有在光学系统中实现，这是因为纳米粒子在低气压下在光学陷阱中不稳定，以及光场上的基本噪声导致一些额外的衰减的事实。LE系统不会受到这些限制的影响。提供电联网、超高品质因数振荡器的潜力有望挑战普遍存在于通信、导航和信号处理中的石英晶体振荡器技术，并使微小作用力的检测成为可能。*目标3-超低耗散量子设备：LEVELECTRO将探索悬浮腔量子电力学(LCQE)理论，其中悬浮带电粒子耦合到量子微波腔。规则腔量子机电系统处于量子技术的前沿，但受到从机械元件到环境的能量损失(耗散)的限制。LCQE克服了这一问题，承诺进行超低耗散操作、深度量子冷却，并将量子信息存储数十秒。也有可能将LC QE系统与悬浮腔量子光机系统相结合，使光的量子态转换为量子电信号。人们可以预见，自由传播的光的量子态将转换为高度可访问和可控制的量子电信号，这是一个非常需要的量子换能器，充当量子信息网络中的一个节点。

**The research in context**Technology is continuously miniaturizing, and as it reaches the nanoscale we face unique challenges. How do we control such small objects? What happens when temperature fluctuations have the same energy scale as our devices? From the other direction, advances in the quantum physics of a few atoms, ions, and solid-state qubits mean that we increasingly wish to scale up quantum systems, or interface them with nanoscale technology.Nano- and micro-mechanical devices have been controlled at the quantum level in recent years, an amazing advance allowing even entanglement between light and mechanical motion. However, all such small systems are limited by unavoidable environmental effects, such as thermal contact with the surroundings and energy dissipation through strain. This limits the participation of mechanical devices in both classical and quantum technologies.By using a levitated nanoparticle as the mechanical device, these problems are overcome. LEVELECTRO will pioneer the integration of levitated nano-objects with electronic circuits, allowing electrical cooling and networking. This ultra-low dissipation system offers exquisite force sensitivity. LEVELECTRO will explore new regimes of physics, by working in extreme vacuum, elucidating thermodynamics on the nanoscale. This unique research will enable levitated nano-objects to participate in quantum technologies as long-lived quantum storage devices, and as high-fidelity transducers between optical and electronic quantum signals.**Aims and Applications***Aim 1 - All-electrical nanoparticle control platform: LEVELECTRO introduces a new platform, where a levitated nanoparticle is coupled to an electrical circuit, founding the field levitated electromechanics (LE). LE will allow fully electronic control and cooling of the motion of nanoparticles, avoiding the detrimental scattering and absorption encountered in optical levitation. Electrical cooling removes thermal energy which masks the sensitivity of the levitated particles to their environment, hence cooling boosts the ability for the LE platform to behave as a sensor.*Aim 2 - Ultra-low dissipation networked device: Nanoparticles levitated in vacuum are predicted to have the highest mechanical quality factor of any mechanical object. Such a levitated nanoparticle acts like a little pendulum clock, and in principle if you give it a kick it would take months for it to ring-down. Such behaviour hasn't been realised in optical systems, due to the instability of nanoparticles in optical traps at low pressures, and the fact that the fundamental noise on the light field leads to some additional damping. The LE system doesn't suffer from these limitations. The potential to provide an electrically networked, ultra-high quality factor oscillator, promises to challenge quartz crystal oscillator technology, which is ubiquitous in communications, navigation, and signal processing, and enable the detection of tiny forces. *Aim 3 - Ultra-low dissipation quantum device: LEVELECTRO will explore Levitated Cavity Quantum Electromechanics (LCQE) theory, where a levitated charged particle is coupled to quantum microwave cavities. Regular cavity quantum electromechanical systems are at the forefront of quantum technologies, but are limited by a loss of energy (dissipation) from the mechanical element to the environment. LCQE overcomes this problem, promising ultra-low dissipation operation, deep quantum cooling, and the storage of quantum information for tens of seconds. It is also possible to combine the LCQE system with a levitated cavity quantum optomechanical one, enable the conversion of quantum states of light, to quantum electrical signals. One can foresee the conversion of freely propagating quantum states of light into highly accessible and controllable quantum electrical signals, a much-needed quantum transducer acting as a node in a quantum information network.