Classical decoherence in a nanomechanical resonator

Abstract

Decoherence is an essential mechanism that defines the boundary between classical and quantum behaviours, while imposing technological bounds for quantum devices. Little is known about quantum coherence of mechanical systems, as opposed to electromagnetic degrees of freedom. But decoherence can also be thought of in a purely classical context, as the loss of phase coherence in the classical phase space. Indeed the bridge between quantum and classical physics is under intense investigation, using in particular classical nanomechanical analogues of quantum phenomena. In the present work, by separating pure dephasing from dissipation, we quantitatively model the classical decoherence of a mechanical resonator: through the experimental control of frequency fluctuations, we engineer artificial dephasing. Building on the fruitful analogy introduced between spins/quantum bits and nanomechanical modes, we report on the methods available to define pure dephasing in these systems, while demonstrating the intrinsic almost-ideal properties of silicon-nitride beams. These experimental and theoretical results, at the boundary between classical nanomechanics and quantum information fields, are prerequisite in the understanding of decoherence processes in mechanical devices, both classical and quantum.

SI not provided

References in corpus (10)

• Frequency fluctuations in silicon nanoresonators
• Nanotube mechanical resonators with quality factors of up to 5 million
• Creating and Verifying a Quantum Superposition in a Micro-optomechanical System
• Frequency and phase noise of ultra-high Q silicon nitride nanomechanical resonators
• Interplay of driving and frequency noise in the spectra of vibrational systems
• Probing the quantum coherence of a nanomechanical resonator using a superconducting qubit: I. Echo scheme
• Time-domain response of atomically thin $\mathrm{Mo}{\mathrm{S}}_2$ nanomechanical resonators
• Observation of decoherence in a carbon nanotube mechanical resonator
• In-situ comprehensive calibration of a tri-port nano-electro-mechanical device
• Telegraph frequency noise in electromechanical resonators

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Quantum Decoherence
• Real-time measurement of nanotube resonator fluctuations in an electron microscope
• On-chip thermometry for microwave optomechanics implemented in a nuclear demagnetization cryostat
• Non-linear Frequency Transduction of Nano-mechanical Brownian Motion
• Measuring frequency fluctuations in nonlinear nanomechanical resonators
• Classical Stückelberg interferometry of a nanomechanical two-mode system at room temperature
• The Universality of Thermal Transport in Amorphous Nanowires at Low Temperatures
• Nearly quantum-limited Josephson-junction Frequency Comb synthesizer
• Thin-film quartz for high-coherence piezoelectric phononic crystal resonators
• Geometric energy transfer in a Stückelberg interferometer of two parametrically coupled mechanical modes
• Decoherence: From Interpretation to Experiment
• Measurement and Memory in the Periodically Driven Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation
• Study of the non-linear dynamics of micro-resonators based on a Sn-whisker in vacuum and at mK temperatures
• Dynamics and Spectral Response of linear-quadratic optomechanical interaction: Effects of pure dephasing
• High Stability Mechanical Frequency Sensing beyond the Linear Regime