Laser light has been used to cool a nanomechanical resonator to its lowest energy state. The result opens the door to testing the principles of quantum mechanics and to applications in quantum information processing.
Superradiant Phase Transitions and the Standard Description of Circuit QED
We investigate the equilibrium behavior of a superconducting circuit QED system containing a large number of artificial atoms. It is shown that the currently accepted standard description of circuit QED via an effective model fails in an important aspect: it predicts the possibility of a superradiant phase transition, even though a full microscopic treatment reveals that a no-go theorem for such phase transitions known from cavity QED applies to circuit QED systems as well. We generalize the no-go theorem to the case of (artificial) atoms with many energy levels and thus make it more applicable for realistic cavity or circuit QED systems.
Collective Dynamics in Optomechanical Arrays
Georg Heinrich,
Max Ludwig,
Jiang Qian,
Bjoern Kubala,
Florian Marquardt
Optomechanical systems couple light stored inside an optical cavity to the motion of a mechanical mode. Recent experiments have demonstrated setups, such as photonic crystal structures, that in principle allow one to confine several optical and vibrational modes on a single chip. Here we start to investigate the collective nonlinear dynamics in arrays of coupled optomechanical cells. We show that such "optomechanical arrays" can display synchronization, and that they can be described by an effective Kuramoto-type model.
Coupled multimode optomechanics in the microwave regime
The motion of micro- and nanomechanical resonators can be coupled to electromagnetic fields. This allows one to explore the mutual interaction and introduces new means to manipulate and control both light and mechanical motion. Such optomechanical systems have recently been implemented in nanoelectromechanical systems involving a nanomechanical beam coupled to a superconducting microwave resonator. Here, we propose optomechanical systems that involve multiple, coupled microwave resonators. In contrast to similar systems in the optical realm, the coupling frequency governing photon exchange between microwave modes is naturally comparable to typical mechanical frequencies. For instance this enables new ways to manipulate the microwave field, such as mechanically driving coherent photon dynamics between different modes. In particular we investigate two setups where the electromagnetic field is coupled either linearly or quadratically to the displacement of a nanomechanical beam. The latter scheme allows one to perform QND Fock state detection. For experimentally realistic parameters we predict the possibility to measure an individual quantum jump from the mechanical ground state to the first excited state. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2011
Quantum-mechanical theory of optomechanical Brillouin cooling
Matthew Tomes,
Florian Marquardt,
Gaurav Bahl,
Tal Carmon
Physical Review A
84
(6)
063806
(2011)
| Journal
| PDF
We analyze how to exploit Brillouin scattering of light from sound for the purpose of cooling optomechanical devices and present a quantum-mechanical theory for Brillouin cooling. Our analysis shows that significant cooling ratios can be obtained with standard experimental parameters. A further improvement of cooling efficiency is possible by increasing the dissipation of the optical anti-Stokes resonance.
Dynamics of coupled multimode and hybrid optomechanical systems
Georg Heinrich,
Max Ludwig,
Huaizhi Wu,
K. Hammerer,
Florian Marquardt
Recent experimental developments have brought into focus optomechanical systems containing multiple optical and mechanical modes interacting with each other. Examples include a setup with a movable membrane between two end-mirrors and "optomechanical crystal" devices that support localized optical and mechanical modes in a photonic crystal type structure. We discuss how mechanical driving of such structures results in coherent photon transfer between optical modes, and how the physics of Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg oscillations arises in this context. Another area where multiple modes are involved are hybrid systems. There, we review the recent proposal of a single atom whose mechanical motion is coupled to a membrane via the light field. This is a special case of the general principle of cavity-mediated mechanical coupling. Such a setup would allow the well-developed tools of atomic physics to be employed to access the quantum state of the 'macroscopic' mechanical mode of the membrane. (C) 2011 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Contact
Theory Division Prof. Florian Marquardt
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light Staudtstr. 2 91058 Erlangen, Germany
