Detecting phonon blockade with photons

Abstract

Measuring the quantum dynamics of a mechanical system, when few phonons are involved, remains a challenge. We show that a superconducting microwave resonator linearly coupled to the mechanical mode constitutes a very powerful probe for this scope. This new coupling can be much stronger than the usual radiation pressure interaction by adjusting a gate voltage. We focus on the detection of phonon blockade, showing that it can be observed by measuring the statistics of the light in the cavity. The underlying reason is the formation of an entangled state between the two resonators. Our scheme realizes a phonotonic Josephson junction, giving rise to coherent oscillations between phonons and photons as well as a self-trapping regime for a coupling smaller than a critical value. The transition from the self-trapping to the oscillating regime is also induced dynamically by dissipation.

6 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Resolving photon number states in a superconducting circuit
• Circuit cavity electromechanics in the strong coupling regime
• Nanomechanical motion measured with precision beyond the standard quantum limit
• Observation of Resonant Photon Blockade at Microwave Frequencies using Correlation Function Measurements
• Carbon nanotubes as ultra-high quality factor mechanical resonators
• Quantum Non-demolition Detection of Single Microwave Photons in a Circuit
• Nonlinear response of the vacuum Rabi resonance
• Measurements of the Correlation Function of a Microwave Frequency Single Photon Source
• Photon generation in an electromagnetic cavity with a time-dependent boundary
• Selective coupling of superconducting qubits via tunable stripline cavity
• Schemes for the observation of photon correlation functions in circuit QED with linear detectors
• Giant Kerr nonlinearities in Circuit-QED
• Non-equilibrium delocalization-localization transition of photons in circuit QED
• Number squeezing, quantum fluctuations and oscillations in mesoscopic Bose Josephson junctions
• Two-mode optical state truncation and generation of maximally entangled states in pumped nonlinear couplers
• Dissipation in circuit quantum electrodynamics: lasing and cooling of a low-frequency oscillator
• Probing the quantum coherence of a nanomechanical resonator using a superconducting qubit: I. Echo scheme
• Ground state cooling of nanomechanical resonator via parametric linear coupling
• The single-atom box: bosonic staircase and effects of parity
• Noise spectrum of a tunnel junction coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator