Non-Gaussian mechanical motion via single and multi-phonon subtraction from a thermal state

Abstract

Quantum optical measurement techniques offer a rich avenue for quantum control of mechanical oscillators via cavity optomechanics. In particular, a powerful yet little explored combination utilizes optical measurements to perform heralded non-Gaussian mechanical state preparation followed by tomography to determine the mechanical phase-space distribution. Here, we experimentally perform heralded single- and multi-phonon subtraction via photon counting to a laser-cooled mechanical thermal state with a Brillouin optomechanical system at room temperature, and use optical heterodyne detection to measure the $s$-parameterized Wigner distribution of the non-Gaussian mechanical states generated. The techniques developed here advance the state-of-the-art for optics-based tomography of mechanical states and will be useful for a broad range of applied and fundamental studies that utilize mechanical quantum-state engineering and tomography.

Main and supplementary in single file. 19 pages, 6 figures. (www.qmeas.net)

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• Non-classical correlations between photons and phonons of center-of-mass motion of a mechanical oscillator
• Fast Generation of High-Fidelity Mechanical Non-Gaussian States via Additional Amplifier and Photon Subtraction
• Brillouin-Mandelstam scattering in telecommunications optical fiber at millikelvin temperatures
• Proposal for Observing Nonclassicality in Highly Excited Mechanical Oscillators by Single Photon Detection
• High fidelity macroscopic superposition states via shortcut to adiabaticity
• Enhanced Laser Cooling of a Mechanical Resonator via Zero-Photon Detection
• Theoretical framework for enhancing or enabling cooling of a mechanical resonator via the anti-Stokes or Stokes interaction and zero-photon detection
• Measuring High-Order Phonon Correlations in an Optomechanical Resonator
• Witnesses of Genuine Multipartite Entanglement and Nonlocal Measurement Back-action for Raman-scattering Quantum Systems
• Reservoir-Engineered Mechanical Cat States with a Driven Qubit