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Non-classical correlations between single photons and phonons from a mechanical oscillator

Nature volume 530, pages 313–316 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Interfacing a single photon with another quantum system is a key capability in modern quantum information science. It allows quantum states of matter, such as spin states of atoms1,2, atomic ensembles3,4 or solids5, to be prepared and manipulated by photon counting and, in particular, to be distributed over long distances. Such light–matter interfaces have become crucial to fundamental tests of quantum physics6 and realizations of quantum networks7. Here we report non-classical correlations between single photons and phonons—the quanta of mechanical motion—from a nanomechanical resonator. We implement a full quantum protocol involving initialization of the resonator in its quantum ground state of motion and subsequent generation and read-out of correlated photon–phonon pairs. The observed violation of a Cauchy–Schwarz inequality is clear evidence for the non-classical nature of the mechanical state generated. Our results demonstrate the availability of on-chip solid-state mechanical resonators as light–matter quantum interfaces. The performance we achieved will enable studies of macroscopic quantum phenomena8 as well as applications in quantum communication9, as quantum memories10 and as quantum transducers11,12.

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Figure 1: Generation and read-out of photon–phonon pairs.
Figure 2: Mechanical quantum ground state preparation.
Figure 3: Non-classical photon–phonon correlations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Hammerer and S. Hofer for discussions, and T. Graziosi, J. Hill, J. Hoelscher-Obermaier, Y. Liu, L. Procopio, A. Safavi-Naeini, E. Schafler, G. Steele and W. Wieczorek for experimental support. We acknowledge assistance from the Kavli Nanolab Delft, in particular from M. Zuiddam and F. Dirne. This project was supported by the European Commission (cQOM, SIQS, IQUOEMS), a Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) Projectruimte grant (15PR3210), the Vienna Science and Technology Fund WWTF (ICT12-049), the European Research Council (ERC CoG QLev4G), and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under projects F40 (SFB FOQUS) and P28172. R.R. is supported by the FWF under project W1210 (CoQuS) and is a recipient of a DOC fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the University of Vienna.

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Author notes

  1. Ralf Riedinger and Sungkun Hong: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ), Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, A-1090, Austria

    Ralf Riedinger, Sungkun Hong, Joshua A. Slater & Markus Aspelmeyer

  2. Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2628CJ, The Netherlands

    Richard A. Norte, Alexander G. Krause & Simon Gröblacher

  3. Photon Spot Inc., Monrovia, 91016, California, USA

    Juying Shang & Vikas Anant

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Optomechanical device.

Shown is a scanning electron microscope image of a set of nanobeams, which are fabricated in silicon, as described in the text. Light is coupled into the central, adiabatically tapered waveguide through a lensed optical fibre (not shown) from the left of the image. The field then evanescently couples to each nanobeam (top and bottom). The two devices have slightly different resonance frequency, which makes it possible to distinguish them.

Extended Data Figure 2 Detailed experimental set-up.

See Methods section ‘Set-up’ for a description.

Extended Data Figure 3 Pump-probe measurement of the mechanical response.

We send in a brief, intense blue-detuned optical pulse (pump) and measure the mechanical response via a red-detuned optical probe pulse as a function of pump-probe time delay (δt). a, Long-term mechanical response. The result fits well with a simple exponential decay (red dashed line; see equation in the plot) with a damping time constant (Td) of 34.4 μs. The inset shows the same data/fit with a logarithmic scale on the x axis. CAS,0 is the extrapolated CAS (δt = 0). b, Short-term mechanical response. The data are fitted to a simple exponential curve (green dashed line; see equation in the plot). The fitted time constant (τd) is 0.37 μs. The fit curve of the long-term response (red dashed line) projected to 0-μs delay is also shown for comparison. Because the pump-pulse energies were five times stronger than those of the write pulses in the correlation experiment, it is expected that the delayed heating occurs on a longer timescale, owing to the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of silicon32. Error bars in a and b represent a 68% confidence interval.

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Extended Data Table 1 Counts of the cross-correlation measurements
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Riedinger, R., Hong, S., Norte, R. et al. Non-classical correlations between single photons and phonons from a mechanical oscillator. Nature 530, 313–316 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16536

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