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Vectorial polaritons in the quantum motion of a levitated nanosphere

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 1120–1124 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The strong coupling between photons and bosonic excitations in matter produces hybrid quasiparticle states known as polaritons1,2,3. Their signature is the avoided crossing between the eigenfrequencies of the coupled system illustrated by the Jaynes–Cummings Hamiltonian4. It has been observed in quantum electrodynamics experiments based on atoms5,6, ions7, excitons8,9,10, spin ensembles11,12 and superconducting qubits13. In cavity optomechanics, polariton modes originate from the quantum-coherent coupling of a macroscopic mechanical vibration to the cavity radiation field14,15. Here we investigate polaritonic modes in the motion of an optically levitated nanosphere16,17,18,19,20,21,22 in the quantum-coherent coupling regime. The particle is trapped in a high vacuum by an optical tweezer and strongly coupled to a single cavity mode by coherent scattering of the tweezer photons23,24,25,26,27. The two-dimensional motion and optical cavity mode define an optomechanical system with three degrees of freedom. In the strong-coupling regime, we observe hybrid light–mechanical states with a vectorial nature. Our results pave the way towards protocols for quantum information transfer between photonic and phononic components and represent a step towards the demonstration of optomechanical entangled states at room temperature.

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Fig. 1: Experimental system.
Fig. 2: Polaritonic dynamics.
Fig. 3: Spectra in coherent strong-coupling regimes.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. All other data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

Codes to analyse the data and perform numeric calculations are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

F. Marin and P.V. thank N. Kiesel, U. Delic and M. Aspelmeyer for useful discussions and their kind hospitality. Research performed within the Project QuaSeRT funded by the QuantERA ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies implemented within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

Author information

Author notes

  1. A. Chowdhury

    Present address: Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

    A. Ranfagni, P. Vezio & F. Marin

  2. INFN, Sezione di Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

    A. Ranfagni, P. Vezio, M. Calamai, F. Marino & F. Marin

  3. CNR-INO, Firenze, Italy

    A. Chowdhury, F. Marino & F. Marin

  4. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

    F. Marin

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Contributions

F. Marin conceived the experiment. All the authors constructed the setup. A.R., P.V., F. Marino and F. Marin performed the experiment and analysed the data. F. Marino and F. Marin wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to F. Marin.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–9, Discussion (theoretical model, experimental setup, noise spectra and data analysis) and refs. 1–11.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Source data for Fig. 1b (a two-column file).

Source Data Fig. 2

Source data for Fig. 2 (a text file and a two-column file for each curve in the figure).

Source Data Fig. 3

Source data for Fig. 3 (a text file and a two-column file for each curve appearing in the figure (except for fig3a_data.txt, which has three columns for x, y and y-error)).

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Ranfagni, A., Vezio, P., Calamai, M. et al. Vectorial polaritons in the quantum motion of a levitated nanosphere. Nat. Phys. 17, 1120–1124 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01307-y

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