Abstract
We propose a scheme to prepare a macroscopic mechanical oscillator in a catlike state, close to a coherent state superposition. The mechanical oscillator, coupled by radiation-pressure interaction to a field in an optical cavity, is first prepared close to a squeezed vacuum state using a reservoir engineering technique. The system is then probed using a short optical pulse tuned to the lower motional sideband of the cavity resonance, realizing a photon-phonon swap interaction. A photon number measurement of the photons emerging from the cavity then conditions a phonon-subtracted catlike state with a negative Wigner distribution exhibiting separated peaks and multiple interference fringes. We show that this scheme is feasible using state-of-the-art photonic crystal optomechanical system.
Highlights
Since its inception, major questions in quantum mechanics have been whether and how the superposition principle applies to macroscopic objects, as embodied in the famous thought experiment of Schrödinger
Superpositions of coherent states, known as cat states, are routinely generated in microscopic systems such as ions [1,2], radiation in superconducting cavities [3], optical photons [4,5,6], as well as atoms [7] and hybrid atom-light systems [8]. Preparing such states in macroscopic systems has proved to be more difficult. It has mainly been considered within the framework of quantum optomechanics, where a macroscopic mechanical oscillator is coupled to an electromagnetic field in a cavity via radiation pressure interaction [9]
We presented a scheme to prepare a macroscopic mechanical oscillator in a catlike state by combining reservoirengineering techniques, phonon-photon swap operations, and photon counting
Summary
Major questions in quantum mechanics have been whether and how the superposition principle applies to macroscopic objects, as embodied in the famous thought experiment of Schrödinger. Optomechanical crystals [63] are an especially promising platform for our scheme They operate in the resolved sideband regime, and cooling to the ground state with strong driving has been demonstrated [11] (note that cooling and squeezing are here combined in a single step [19]). They can show extremely long coherence times of more than a second [64], making them attractive for studying nonclassical states of motion. Squeezing was successfully demonstrated in several optomechanical systems [20,21,22,23], and photon counting was applied to optomechanical crystals prepared in the ground state to generate single-phonon and entangled [25,26,27,65,66] mechanical states
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
