Strong optomechanical coupling at room temperature by coherent scattering

Nadine Meyer,Romain Quidant,Andres De Los Rios Sommer,Kishan Dholakia,Gabriel C Spalding

doi:10.1117/12.2595438

Abstract

Recently, after a decade of experimental and theoretical efforts, coherent scattering has enabled the motional ground state of levitated nanoparticles at room temperature. While this represents an important milestone towards the creation of mesoscopic quantum objects, coherent quantum control of levitated nanoparticles still remains elusive. A valuable but less stringent condition is the so-called strong coupling regime (SCR), where the optomechanical coupling strength between the mechanical motion of a particle and an external optical cavity exceeds the particle’s mechanical damping and the cavity linewidth, as has been demonstrated in opto- and electromechanical systems. Here, we demonstrate the SCR at room temperature between a levitated silica particle and a high finesse optical cavity. Normal mode splitting is achieved by employing coherent scattering. Our table top experiment offers numerous ways to tune the optomechanical coupling strength at room temperature.

Highlights

This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection
An important milestone towards quantum control is the so-called strong coupling regime, which in cavity optomechanics corresponds to an optomechanical coupling strength larger than cavity decay rate and mechanical damping
The trap is mounted on a nano-positioning stage allowing for precise 3D placement of the particle inside the low loss, high finesse Fabry-Pérot cavity with a cavity linewidth κ ≈ 2π × 10 kHz, cavity finesse F = 5.4 × 105 and free spectral range ΔωFSR = πc/Lc = 2π × 5.4 GHz

Summary

Introduction

This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. After a decade of experimental and theoretical efforts employing the same techniques[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8], the motional ground state of levitated silica nanoparticles at room temperature has been reported[9] While this represents an important milestone towards the creation of mesoscopic quantum objects, coherent quantum control of levitated nanoparticles[10,11] still remains elusive. Levitated particles stand out among the plethora of optomechanical systems[12] due to their detachment, and high degree of isolation from the environment Their centre of mass, rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom[13] make them attractive tools for inertial sensing[14], rotational dynamics[15,16,17,18], free fall experiments[19], exploration of dynamic potentials[20], and are envisioned for testing macroscopic quantum phenomena at room temperature[2,10,21,22]. The centre-of-mass motion of a levitated particle has successfully been 3D cooled employing coherent scattering (CS)[8,23]

Methods

Results

Conclusion