132 research outputs found
Cavity-enhanced optical detection of carbon nanotube Brownian motion
Optical cavities with small mode volume are well-suited to detect the
vibration of sub-wavelength sized objects. Here we employ a fiber-based,
high-finesse optical microcavity to detect the Brownian motion of a freely
suspended carbon nanotube at room temperature under vacuum. The optical
detection resolves deflections of the oscillating tube down to 50pm/Hz^1/2. A
full vibrational spectrum of the carbon nanotube is obtained and confirmed by
characterization of the same device in a scanning electron microscope. Our work
successfully extends the principles of high-sensitivity optomechanical
detection to molecular scale nanomechanical systems.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
State tomography of capacitively shunted phase qubits with high fidelity
We introduce a new design concept for superconducting quantum bits (qubits)
in which we explicitly separate the capacitive element from the Josephson
tunnel junction for improved qubit performance. The number of two-level systems
(TLS) that couple to the qubit is thereby reduced by an order of magnitude and
the measurement fidelity improves to 90%. This improved design enables the
first demonstration of quantum state tomography with superconducting qubits
using single shot measurements.Comment: submitted to PR
Optomechanics for quantum technologies
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
Single electron-phonon interaction in a suspended quantum dot phonon cavity
An electron-phonon cavity consisting of a quantum dot embedded in a
free-standing GaAs/AlGaAs membrane is characterized in Coulomb blockade
measurements at low temperatures. We find a complete suppression of single
electron tunneling around zero bias leading to the formation of an energy gap
in the transport spectrum. The observed effect is induced by the excitation of
a localized phonon mode confined in the cavity. This phonon blockade of
transport is lifted at magnetic fields where higher electronic states with
nonzero angular momentum are brought into resonance with the phonon energy.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
DC voltage-sustained self-oscillation of a nano-mechanical electron shuttle
One core challenge of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) is their efficient
actuation. A promising concept superseding resonant driving is
self-oscillation. Here we demonstrate voltage-sustained self-oscillation of a
nanomechanical charge shuttle. Stable transport at 4.2 K is observed for
billions of shuttling cycles, giving rise to ohmic current-voltage curves with
a sharp dissipation threshold. With only a few nanowatts of input energy the
presented scheme is suitable for operation in the millikelvin regime where
Coulomb blockade-controlled single electron shuttling is anticipated.Comment: 6 pages, including 4 figure
Cooper-pair coherence in a superfluid Fermi-gas of atoms
We study the coherence properties of a trapped two-component gas of fermionic
atoms below the BCS critical temperature. We propose an optical method to
investigate the Cooper-pair coherence across different regions of the
superfluid. Near-resonant laser light is used to induce transitions between the
two coupled hyperfine states. The beam is split so that it probes two spatially
separate regions of the gas. Absorption of the light in this interferometric
scheme depends on the Cooper-pair coherence between the two regions.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to J. Phys. B as a proceedings of the
Salerno 2001 BEC worksho
Diffraction of a superfluid Fermi gas by an atomic grating
An atomic grating generated by a pulsed standing wave laser field is proposed
to manipulate the superfluid state in a quantum degenerate gas of fermionic
atoms. We show that in the presence of atomic Cooper pairs, the density
oscillations of the gas caused by the atomic grating exhibit a much longer
coherence time than that in the normal Fermi gas. Our result indicates that the
technique of a pulsed atomic grating can be a potential candidate to detect the
atomic superfluid state in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Optical Phonon Lasing in Semiconductor Double Quantum Dots
We propose optical phonon lasing for a double quantum dot (DQD) fabricated in
a semiconductor substrate. We show that the DQD is weakly coupled to only two
LO phonon modes that act as a natural cavity. The lasing occurs for pumping the
DQD via electronic tunneling at rates much higher than the phonon decay rate,
whereas an antibunching of phonon emission is observed in the opposite regime
of slow tunneling. Both effects disappear with an effective thermalization
induced by the Franck-Condon effect in a DQD fabricated in a carbon nanotube
with a strong electron-phonon coupling.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
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