Squeezed light from a levitated nanoparticle at room temperature

Abstract

Quantum measurements of mechanical systems can produce optical squeezing via ponderomotive forces. Its observation requires high environmental isolation and efficient detection, typically achieved by using optical cavities and cryogenic cooling. Here we realize these conditions by measuring the position of an optically levitated nanoparticle at room temperature and without the overhead of an optical cavity. We use a fast heterodyne detection to reconstruct simultaneously orthogonal optical quadratures, and observe a noise reduction of $9\%\pm 0.5\%$ below shot noise. Our experiment offers a novel, cavity-less platform for squeezed-light enhanced sensing. At the same time it delineates a clear and simple strategy towards observation of stationary optomechanical entanglement.

15 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum control of a nanoparticle optically levitated in cryogenic free space
• Cold Damping of an Optically Levitated Nanoparticle to micro-Kelvin Temperatures
• Controlling the net charge on a nanoparticle optically levitated in vacuum
• Ponderomotive squeezing of light by a levitated nanoparticle in free space
• Phase sensitive detection of dipole radiation in a fiber-based high numerical aperture optical system

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Ponderomotive squeezing of light by a levitated nanoparticle in free space
• Suppressing Recoil Heating in Levitated Optomechanics using Squeezed Light
• Multi-step two-copy distillation of squeezed states via two photon subtraction
• Steady motional entanglement between two distant levitated nanoparticles