Preparing macroscopic mechanical quantum superpositions via photon detection

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a feasible scheme for generating the Schr\"{o}dinger cat states of a macroscopic mechanical resonator in pulsed cavity optomechanics. Starting with cooling the mechanical oscillator to its ground state, a red and a blue pulses with different powers are simultaneously employed to drive the cavity to achieve squeezed mechanical states. Subsequently, a second red pulse is utilized to generate the macroscopic mechanical quantum superpositions, conditioned on the detection of cavity output photons. Finally, after being stored in the resonator for a period of time, the mechanical state is mapped, with a third red pulse, to the cavity output field used for state verification. Our approach is generic and can also be used to produce other kinds of non-Gaussian mechanical states, like optical-catalysis nonclassical states.