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Optomechanics for quantum technologies

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 15–24 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ability to control the motion of mechanical systems through interaction with light has opened the door to a plethora of applications in fundamental and applied physics. With experiments routinely reaching the quantum regime, the focus has now turned towards creating and exploiting interesting non-classical states of motion and entanglement in optomechanical systems. Quantumness has also shifted from being the very reason why experiments are constructed to becoming a resource for the investigation of fundamental physics and the creation of quantum technologies. Here, by focusing on opto- and electromechanical platforms we review recent progress in quantum state preparation and entanglement of mechanical systems, together with applications to signal processing and transduction, quantum sensing and topological physics, as well as small-scale thermodynamics.

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Fig. 1: Platforms for studying optomechanical science.
Fig. 2: Non-classical correlations in and between mechanical resonators.
Fig. 3: Entanglement of massive mechanical resonators.
Fig. 4: Efficient and coherent transduction in optomechanical systems.
Fig. 5: Non-reciprocal effects in optomechanical systems.

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Acknowledgements

S.B. acknowledges funding by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through its Discovery Grant, funding and advisory support provided by Alberta Innovates through the Accelerating Innovations into CarE (AICE)—Concepts Program, and support from Alberta Innovates and NSERC through an Advance Grant. A.X. acknowledges funding by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 732894 (FET Proactive HOT) and by the Julian Schwinger Foundation project grant JSF-16-03-0000 (TOM). S.G. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant Strong-Q, 676842; and ERC Consolidator Grant Q-ECHOS, 101001005) and by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO/OCW) as part of the Frontiers of Nanoscience program, as well as through Vidi (680-47-541/994) and Vrij Programma (680-92-18-04) grants. M.P. is supported by the H2020/FETOPEN/2018/2020 project TEQ (766900), the DfE-SFI Investigator Programme (15/IA/2864), COST Action CA15220, the Royal Society Wolfson Research Fellowship (RSWF\R3\183013), the Royal Society International Exchanges Programme (IEC\R2\192220), the Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (RGP/2018/266), the UK EPSRC (project QuamNESS, grant EP/T028106/1) and the CNR/RS (London) project “Testing fundamental theories with ultracold atoms”. C.A.R. acknowledges funding by the US National Science Foundation under grant 1125844 and a Cottrell FRED Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement under grant 27321. E.M.W. acknowledges funding by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 732894 (FET Proactive HOT), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (contract 13N14777) within the European QuantERA co-fund project QuaSeRT, and project QT-6 SPOC of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Shabir Barzanjeh

  2. Department of Physics, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    André Xuereb

  3. Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Simon Gröblacher

  4. Centre for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (CTAMOP), School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK

    Mauro Paternostro

  5. JILA, University of Colorado and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, USA

    Cindy A. Regal

  6. Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Cindy A. Regal

  7. Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Eva M. Weig

  8. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Eva M. Weig

  9. Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST), Munich, Germany

    Eva M. Weig

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  1. Shabir Barzanjeh
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Barzanjeh, S., Xuereb, A., Gröblacher, S. et al. Optomechanics for quantum technologies. Nat. Phys. 18, 15–24 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01402-0

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