Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Quantum control of surface acoustic-wave phonons

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of quantum physics is the generation of non-classical quantum states and superpositions, which has been demonstrated in several quantum systems, including ions, solid-state qubits and photons. However, only indirect demonstrations of non-classical states have been achieved in mechanical systems, despite the scientific appeal and technical utility of such a capability1,2, including in quantum sensing, computation and communication applications. This is due in part to the highly linear response of most mechanical systems, which makes quantum operations difficult, as well as their characteristically low frequencies, which hinder access to the quantum ground state3,4,5,6,7. Here we demonstrate full quantum control of the mechanical state of a macroscale mechanical resonator. We strongly couple a surface acoustic-wave8 resonator to a superconducting qubit, using the qubit to control and measure quantum states in the mechanical resonator. We generate a non-classical superposition of the zero- and one-phonon Fock states and map this and other states using Wigner tomography9,10,11,12,13,14. Such precise, programmable quantum control is essential to a range of applications of surface acoustic waves in the quantum limit, including the coupling of disparate quantum systems15,16.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Device description.
Fig. 2: Characterization and modelling of SAW admittance.
Fig. 3: Qubit interaction with a single mechanical mode.
Fig. 4: Generation of the |2〉 state.
Fig. 5: Resonator state characterization.

Data availability

The datasets supporting this work are available from the corresponding author on request.

References

  1. Stannigel, K., Rabl, P., Sørensen, A. S., Zoller, P. & Lukin, M. D. Optomechanical transducers for long-distance quantum communication. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 220501 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Kurizki, G. et al. Quantum technologies with hybrid systems. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 3866–3873 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. O’Connell, A. D. et al. Quantum ground state and single-phonon control of a mechanical resonator. Nature 464, 697–703 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Teufel, J. D. et al. Sideband cooling of micromechanical motion to the quantum ground state. Nature 475, 359–363 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chan, J. et al. Laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state. Nature 478, 89–92 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wollman, E. E. et al. Quantum squeezing of motion in a mechanical resonator. Science 349, 952–955 (2015).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Chu, Y. et al. Quantum acoustics with superconducting qubits. Science 358, 199–202 (2017).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Morgan, D. Surface Acoustic Wave Filters: With Applications to Electronic Communications and Signal Processing 2nd edn (Academic Press, Oxford, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Law, C. K. & Eberly, J. H. Arbitrary control of a quantum electromagnetic field. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1055–1058 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Banaszek, K., Radzewicz, C., Wódkiewicz, K. & Krasiński, J. S. Direct measurement of the Wigner function by photon counting. Phys. Rev. A 60, 674–677 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bertet, P. et al. Direct measurement of the Wigner function of a one-photon Fock state in a cavity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 200402 (2002).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Haroche, S. & Raimond, J.-M. Exploring the Quantum: Atoms, Cavities and Photons (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2006).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Hofheinz, M. et al. Synthesizing arbitrary quantum states in a superconducting resonator. Nature 459, 546–549 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Vlastakis, B. et al. Deterministically encoding quantum information using 100-photon Schrödinger cat states. Science 342, 607–610 (2013).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Schuetz, M. et al. Universal quantum transducers based on surface acoustic waves. Phys. Rev. X 5, 031031 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Whiteley, S. J. et al. Probing spin–phonon interactions in silicon carbide with Gaussian acoustics. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.10996 (2018).

  17. Bohr, N. Über die Serienspektra der Elemente. Z. Phys. 2, 423–469 (1920).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Lee, K. C. et al. Entangling macroscopic diamonds at room temperature. Science 334, 1253–1256 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Gustafsson, M. V. et al. Propagating phonons coupled to an artificial atom. Science 346, 207–211 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Manenti, R. et al. Circuit quantum acoustodynamics with surface acoustic waves. Nat. Commun. 8, 975 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Moores, B. A., Sletton, L. R., Viennot, J. J. & Lehnert, K. W. Cavity quantum acoustic device in the multimode strong coupling regime. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 227701 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Arcizet, O. et al. A single nitrogen-vacancy defect coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator. Nat. Phys. 7, 879–883 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Kolkowitz, S. et al. Coherent sensing of a mechanical resonator with a single-spin qubit. Science 335, 1603–1606 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Yeo, I. et al. Strain-mediated coupling in a quantum dot–mechanical oscillator hybrid system. Nat. Nanotechnol. 9, 106–110 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Lee, K. W. et al. Strain coupling of a mechanical resonator to a single quantum emitter in diamond. Phys. Rev. Appl. 6, 034005 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Riedinger, R. et al. Remote quantum entanglement between two micromechanical oscillators. Nature 556, 473–477 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Ockeloen-Korppi, C. F. et al. Stabilized entanglement of massive mechanical oscillators. Nature 556, 478–482 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Cleland, A. N. & Geller, M. R. Superconducting qubit storage and entanglement with nanomechanical resonators. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 070501 (2004).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Chu, Y. et al. Creation and control of multi-phonon Fock states in a bulk acoustic-wave resonator. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0717-7 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Koch, J. et al. Charge-insensitive qubit design derived from the Cooper pair box. Phys. Rev. A 76, 042319 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Barends, R. et al. Coherent Josephson qubit suitable for scalable quantum integrated circuits. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 080502 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Chen, Y. et al. Qubit architecture with high coherence and fast tunable coupling. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 220502 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. Geerlings, K. et al. Demonstrating a driven reset protocol for a superconducting qubit. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 120501 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank P. J. Duda, A. Dunsworth and D. Sank for discussions. Devices and experiments were supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Laboratory and the Department of Energy (DOE). K.J.S. and S.J.W. were supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) GRFP (NSF DGE-1144085); É.D. was supported by LDRD funds from Argonne National Laboratory; A.N.C. and D.D.A. were supported by the DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences; and D.I.S. acknowledges support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. This work was partially supported by the UChicago MRSEC (NSF DMR-1420709) and made use of the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility, which receives support from SHyNE, a node of the NSF’s National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NSF NNCI-1542205).

Reviewer information

Nature thanks S. Deleglise and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

K.J.S. designed and fabricated the devices. K.J.S., H.-S.C., J.G., A.Y.C. and S.J.W. developed the fabrication processes. G.A.P., É.D. and A.N.C. contributed to device design. K.J.S. performed the experiments and analysed the data with assistance from Y.P.Z., A.B. and É.D. Assistance was provided by I.G. and B.H.N. A.N.C., D.I.S. and D.D.A. advised on all efforts. All authors contributed to discussions and the production of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. N. Cleland.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This merged file includes all supplementary information, including text, five figures and additional references. It comprises three sections describing: Device details; models used to predict and understand the results; and more details on the experimental results as well as additional experiments performed and not reported in the main text.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Satzinger, K.J., Zhong, Y.P., Chang, HS. et al. Quantum control of surface acoustic-wave phonons. Nature 563, 661–665 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0719-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0719-5

Keywords

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing