Optically Levitating Dielectrics in the Quantum Regime: Theory and Protocols
- Author(s)
- Oriol Romero-Isart, Anika Carmen Pflanzer, Mathieu L. Juan, Romain Quidant, Nikolai Kiesel, Markus Aspelmeyer, J. Ignacio Cirac
- Abstract
We provide a general quantum theory to describe the coupling of light with the motion of a dielectric object inside a high-finesse optical cavity. In particular, we derive the total Hamiltonian of the system as well as a master equation describing the state of the center-of-mass mode of the dielectric and the cavity-field mode. In addition, a quantum theory of elasticity is used to study the coupling of the center-of-mass motion with internal vibrational excitations of the dielectric. This general theory is applied to the recent proposal of using an optically levitating nanodielectric as a cavity optomechanical system [see Romero-Isart et al., New J. Phys. 12, 033015 (2010); Chang et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 1005 (2010)]. On this basis, we also design a light-mechanics interface to prepare non-Gaussian states of the mechanical motion, such as quantum superpositions of Fock states. Finally, we introduce a direct mechanical tomography scheme to probe these genuine quantum states by time-of-flight experiments.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, The Institute of Photonic Sciences
- Journal
- Physical Review A
- Volume
- 83
- No. of pages
- 23
- ISSN
- 1050-2947
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.013803
- Publication date
- 2011
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103026 Quantum optics
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/ec5d741b-dbd3-4e1c-8559-974a71c1db99