Enhanced quadratic nonlinearity with parametric amplifications

Abstract

Realization of quantum nonlinearity in quadratic optomechanics, including optical and mechanical nonlinearity at the single-photon level, is crucial to explore extraordinary quantum features. Here we investigate an exponential enhancement of quadratic optomechanical interaction via parametric amplifications. The parametric process can form an in-phase amplified quadrature, and the rate of coupling to the in-phase quadrature will be exponentially increased even to the single-photon strong-coupling regime. Concretely, to achieve the optical nonlinearity mediated by the quadratic optomechanical interaction, we can employ a mechanical parametric process, and the in-phase mechanical quadrature can strongly couple to the cavity mode, leading to an enhanced optical nonlinearity such as a photon blockade. Similarly, via employing the optical parametric process, the in-phase optical quadrature can also effectively mediate the quadratic interaction, leading to an enhanced mechanical nonlinearity such as mechanical squeezing, bi-excitation exchange interaction and feasibility of quantum non-demolition detection of mechanical motion. However, the parametric process can also enlarge the noise, and a squeezing vacuum with the phase matching condition should be introduced to suppress the same.