772 research outputs found
Microwave amplification with nanomechanical resonators
Sensitive measurement of electrical signals is at the heart of modern science
and technology. According to quantum mechanics, any detector or amplifier is
required to add a certain amount of noise to the signal, equaling at best the
energy of quantum fluctuations. The quantum limit of added noise has nearly
been reached with superconducting devices which take advantage of
nonlinearities in Josephson junctions. Here, we introduce a new paradigm of
amplification of microwave signals with the help of a mechanical oscillator. By
relying on the radiation pressure force on a nanomechanical resonator, we
provide an experimental demonstration and an analytical description of how the
injection of microwaves induces coherent stimulated emission and signal
amplification. This scheme, based on two linear oscillators, has the advantage
of being conceptually and practically simpler than the Josephson junction
devices, and, at the same time, has a high potential to reach quantum limited
operation. With a measured signal amplification of 25 decibels and the addition
of 20 quanta of noise, we anticipate near quantum-limited mechanical microwave
amplification is feasible in various applications involving integrated
electrical circuits.Comment: Main text + supplementary information. 14 pages, 3 figures (main
text), 18 pages, 6 figures (supplementary information
Schroedinger Cat States of a Nanomechanical Resonator
We present a scheme of generating large-amplitude Schr\"{o}dinger cat states
and entanglement in a coupled system of nanomechanical resonator and single
Cooper pair box (SCPB), without being limited by the magnitude of the coupling.
It is shown that the entanglement between the resonator and the SCPB can be
detected by a spectroscopic method.Comment: 1 figur
Parametric coupling between macroscopic quantum resonators
Time-dependent linear coupling between macroscopic quantum resonator modes
generates both a parametric amplification also known as a {}"squeezing
operation" and a beam splitter operation, analogous to quantum optical systems.
These operations, when applied properly, can robustly generate entanglement and
squeezing for the quantum resonator modes. Here, we present such coupling
schemes between a nanomechanical resonator and a superconducting electrical
resonator using applied microwave voltages as well as between two
superconducting lumped-element electrical resonators using a r.f.
SQUID-mediated tunable coupler. By calculating the logarithmic negativity of
the partially transposed density matrix, we quantitatively study the
entanglement generated at finite temperatures. We also show that
characterization of the nanomechanical resonator state after the quantum
operations can be achieved by detecting the electrical resonator only. Thus,
one of the electrical resonator modes can act as a probe to measure the
entanglement of the coupled systems and the degree of squeezing for the other
resonator mode.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, submitte
Mechanical Entanglement via Detuned Parametric Amplification
We propose two schemes to generate entanglement between a pair of mechanical
oscillators using parametric amplification. In contrast to existing parametric
drive-based protocols, both schemes operate in the steady-state. Using a
detuned parametric drive to maintain equilibrium and to couple orthogonal
quadratures, our approach can be viewed as a two-mode extension of previous
proposals for parametric squeezing. We find that robust steady-state
entanglement is possible for matched oscillators with well-controlled coupling.
In addition, one of the proposed schemes is robust to differences in the
damping rates of the two oscillators.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
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