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Optomechanics

Listening to quantum grains of sound

Nature volume 520, pages 441–442 (2015)Cite this article

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An optomechanical device has allowed quanta, or 'grains', of mechanical vibration to be counted by optical means. The system may open up new possibilities in acoustics and thermal engineering. See Letter p.522

According to quantum theory, all forms of energy come in tiny 'grains' called quanta. This quantum granularity may or may not be discernible, depending on the instruments available and the nature of the energy. The quanta are photons in the case of electromagnetic waves such as light, and phonons for mechanical vibrations in solids. Phonons are ubiquitous in condensed-matter systems, in which they underlie the transport of sound and heat. They also govern the performance of electronic and optical devices, and play a central part in conventional superconductivity. However, whereas photons can be detected at the single-quantum level using today's optical receivers, there is a lack of versatile instruments and techniques to measure phonons at the same level of precision. The scientific and technological stakes are high, given the many potential applications of such systems. On page 522 of this issue, Cohen et al.1 describe a promising step towards building an optical single-phonon detector.

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Figure 1: Optical phonon counting.

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  1. Ivan Favero is at the Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS, UMR 7162, F-75205 Paris Cedex 13, France.,

    Ivan Favero

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Correspondence to Ivan Favero.

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Favero, I. Listening to quantum grains of sound. Nature 520, 441–442 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/520441a

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