Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1002.3140 · Physical Review Letters

Quantum Measurement of Phonon Shot Noise

Aashish A. Clerk, Florian Marquardt, Jack Harris

Published May 27, 2010• 101 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We provide a full quantum mechanical analysis of a weak energy measurement of a driven mechanical resonator. We demonstrate that measurements too weak to resolve individual mechanical Fock states can nonetheless be used to detect the nonclassical energy fluctuations of the driven mechanical resonator, i.e., "phonon shot noise". We also show that the third moment of the oscillator's energy fluctuations provides a far more sensitive probe of quantum effects than the second moment, and that measuring the third moment via the phase shift of light in an optomechanical setup directly yields the type of operator ordering postulated in the theory of full-counting statistics.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.104.213603

Related papers

Quantum Measurement of Phonon Shot Noise using Optomechanical Systems

Aashish A. Clerk

I will discuss theoretical work describing how optomechanical systems can be used to measure quantum energy fluctuations of a driven mechanical resonator, and how the higher moments of such fluctuations possess unusual properties.

Frontiers in Optics•Jan 1, 2010•0 citations

Mechanical Squeezed-Fock Qubit: Towards Quantum Weak-Force Sensing

Yi‐Fan Qiao, Jun‐Hong An, Fuli Li

Mechanical qubits offer unique advantages over other qubit platforms, primarily in terms of coherence time and possibilities for enhanced sensing applications, but their potential is constrained by the inherently weak nonlinearities and small anharmonicity of nanomechanical resonators. We propose overcoming this shortcoming by using squeezed-Fock states of phonons in a parametrically driven nonlinear mechanical oscillator. We find that, under two-phonon driving, squeezed-Fock states become eigenstates of a Kerr-nonlinear mechanical oscillator, featuring an energy spectrum with exponentially enhanced and tunable anharmonicity, such that the transitions to higher energy states are exponentially suppressed. This enables us to encode the mechanical qubit within the ground and first excited squeezed-Fock states of the driven mechanical oscillator. This kind of mechanical qubit is termed mechanical squeezed-Fock qubit. We also show that our mechanical qubit can serve as a quantum sensor for weak forces, with its resulting sensitivity increased by at least one order of magnitude over that of traditional mechanical qubits. The proposed mechanical squeezed-Fock qubit provides a powerful quantum phonon platform for quantum sensing and information processing.

arXiv:2507.13161•Physical Review Letters•Jan 8, 2026•2 citations

Quantum optomechanics at room temperature

H. Schütz

Why are classical theories often sufficient to describe the physics of our world even though everything around us is entirely composed of microscopic quantum systems? The boundary between these two fundamentally dissimilar theories remains an unsolved problem in modern physics. Position measurements of small objects allow us to probe the area where the classical approximation breaks down. In quantum mechanics, Heisenbergâ s uncertainty principle dictates that any measurement of the position must be accompanied by measurement induced back-action---in this case manifested as an uncertainty in the momentum. In recent years, cavity optomechanics has become a powerful tool to perform precise position measurements and investigate their fundamental limitations. The utilization of optical micro-cavities greatly enhances the interaction between light and state-of-the-art nanomechanical oscillators. Therefore, quantum mechanical phenomena have been successfully observed in systems far beyond the microscopic world. In such a cavity optomechanical system, the fluctuations in the position of the oscillator are transduced onto the phase of the light, while fluctuations in the amplitude of the light disturb the momentum of the oscillator during the measurement. As a consequence, correlations are established between the amplitude and phase quadrature of the probe light. However, so far, observation of quantum effects has been limited exclusively to cryogenic experiments, and access to the quantum regime at room temperature has remained an elusive goal because the overwhelming amount of thermal motion masks the weak quantum effects. This thesis describes the engineering of a high-performance cavity optomechanical device and presents experimental results showing, for the first time, the broadband effects of quantum back-action at room temperature. The device strongly couples mechanical and optical modes of exceptionally high quality factors to provide a measurement sensitivity $\sim\!10^4$ times below the requirement to resolve the zero-point fluctuations of the mechanical oscillator. The quantum back-action is then observed through the correlations created between the probe light and the motion of the nanomechanical oscillator. A so-called â variational measurementâ , which detects the transmitted light in a homodyne detector tuned close to the amplitude quadrature, resolves the quantum noise due to these correlations at the level of 10\% of the thermal noise over more than an octave of Fourier frequencies around mechanical resonance. Moreover, building on this result, an additional experiment demonstrates the ability to achieve quantum enhanced metrology. In this case, the generated quantum correlations are used to cancel quantum noise in the measurement record, which then leads to an improved relative signal-to-noise ratio in measurements of an external force. In conclusion, the successful observation of broadband quantum behavior on a macroscopic object at room temperature is an important milestone in the field of cavity optomechanics. Specifically, this result heralds the rise of optomechanical systems as a platform for quantum physics at room temperature and shows promise for generation of ponderomotive squeezing in room-temperature interferometers.

•Jan 1, 2017•0 citations

Phonon quantum nondemolition measurements in nonlinearly coupled optomechanical cavities

Bradley D. Hauer, A. Metelmann, J. P. Davis

In the field of cavity optomechanics, proposals for quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements of phonon number provide a promising avenue by which one can study the quantum nature of nanoscale mechanical resonators. Here we investigate these QND measurements for an optomechanical system whereby quadratic coupling arises due to shared symmetries between a single optical resonance and a mechanical mode. We establish a relaxed limit on the amount of linear coupling that can exist in this type of system while still allowing for QND measurements of mechanical Fock states. The ability to perform optomechanical QND measurements of this nature would allow one to probe the decoherence of these mesoscopic states, providing an experimental test bed for quantum collapse theories.

arXiv:1805.06858•Physical Review A•Oct 2, 2018•27 citations

Testing collapse mechanisms with high frequency quantum optomechanics.

Stefan Forstner, Magdalena Zych, Sahar Basiri-Esfahani +2 more

Spontaneous wavefunction collapse theories provide the possibility to resolve the measurement problem of quantum mechanics. However, the best experimental tests to date have been limited by thermal fluctuations and have operated at frequencies far below those conjectured to allow the physical origins of collapse to be identified. Here we propose a new approach which can surpass these limitations. Our approach uses a nanoscale optomechanical system cooled to near its motional ground state. The scheme combines phonon counting with efficient mitigation of technical noise, including non-linear photon conversion and photon coincidence counting. It is capable of resolving the exquisitely small phonon fluxes required for a conclusive test of collapse models as well as potentially identifying their physical origin.

•Sep 4, 2019•0 citations

Large amplitude mechanical coherent states and detection of weak nonlinearities in cavity optomechanics

Wenlin Li, Paolo Piergentili, Francesco Marzioni +9 more

Abstract The generation of large-amplitude coherent states of a massive mechanical resonator, and their quantum-limited detection represent useful tools for quantum sensing and for testing fundamental physics theories. In fact, any weak perturbation may affect the coherent quantum evolution of the prepared state, providing a sensitive probe for such a perturbation. Here we consider a cavity optomechanical setup and the case of the detection of a weak mechanical nonlinearity. We consider different strategies, first focusing on the stationary dynamics in the presence of multiple tones driving the system, and then focusing on non-equilibrium dynamical strategies. These methods can be successfully applied for measuring Duffing-like material nonlinearities, or effective nonlinear corrections associated with quantum gravity theories.

arXiv:2504.07486•Quantum Science and Technology•Jun 26, 2025•5 citations
We provide a full quantum mechanical analysis of a weak energy measurement of a driven mechanical resonator. We demonstrate that measurements too weak to resolve individual mechanical Fock states can nonetheless be used to detect the nonclassical energy fluctuations of the driven mechanical resonator, i.e., "phonon shot noise". We also show that the third moment of the oscillator's energy fluctuations provides a far more sensitive probe of quantum effects than the second moment, and that measuring the third moment via the phase shift of light in an optomechanical setup directly yields the type of operator ordering postulated in the theory of full-counting statistics.
Mechanical qubits offer unique advantages over other qubit platforms, primarily in terms of coherence time and possibilities for enhanced sensing applications, but their potential is constrained by the inherently weak nonlinearities and small anharmonicity of nanomechanical resonators. We propose overcoming this shortcoming by using squeezed-Fock states of phonons in a parametrically driven nonlinear mechanical oscillator. We find that, under two-phonon driving, squeezed-Fock states become eigenstates of a Kerr-nonlinear mechanical oscillator, featuring an energy spectrum with exponentially enhanced and tunable anharmonicity, such that the transitions to higher energy states are exponentially suppressed. This enables us to encode the mechanical qubit within the ground and first excited squeezed-Fock states of the driven mechanical oscillator. This kind of mechanical qubit is termed mechanical squeezed-Fock qubit. We also show that our mechanical qubit can serve as a quantum sensor for weak forces, with its resulting sensitivity increased by at least one order of magnitude over that of traditional mechanical qubits. The proposed mechanical squeezed-Fock qubit provides a powerful quantum phonon platform for quantum sensing and information processing.
Why are classical theories often sufficient to describe the physics of our world even though everything around us is entirely composed of microscopic quantum systems? The boundary between these two fundamentally dissimilar theories remains an unsolved problem in modern physics. Position measurements of small objects allow us to probe the area where the classical approximation breaks down. In quantum mechanics, Heisenbergâ s uncertainty principle dictates that any measurement of the position must be accompanied by measurement induced back-action---in this case manifested as an uncertainty in the momentum. In recent years, cavity optomechanics has become a powerful tool to perform precise position measurements and investigate their fundamental limitations. The utilization of optical micro-cavities greatly enhances the interaction between light and state-of-the-art nanomechanical oscillators. Therefore, quantum mechanical phenomena have been successfully observed in systems far beyond the microscopic world. In such a cavity optomechanical system, the fluctuations in the position of the oscillator are transduced onto the phase of the light, while fluctuations in the amplitude of the light disturb the momentum of the oscillator during the measurement. As a consequence, correlations are established between the amplitude and phase quadrature of the probe light. However, so far, observation of quantum effects has been limited exclusively to cryogenic experiments, and access to the quantum regime at room temperature has remained an elusive goal because the overwhelming amount of thermal motion masks the weak quantum effects. This thesis describes the engineering of a high-performance cavity optomechanical device and presents experimental results showing, for the first time, the broadband effects of quantum back-action at room temperature. The device strongly couples mechanical and optical modes of exceptionally high quality factors to provide a measurement sensitivity ∼ ⁣104\sim\!10^4∼104 times below the requirement to resolve the zero-point fluctuations of the mechanical oscillator. The quantum back-action is then observed through the correlations created between the probe light and the motion of the nanomechanical oscillator. A so-called â variational measurementâ , which detects the transmitted light in a homodyne detector tuned close to the amplitude quadrature, resolves the quantum noise due to these correlations at the level of 10\% of the thermal noise over more than an octave of Fourier frequencies around mechanical resonance. Moreover, building on this result, an additional experiment demonstrates the ability to achieve quantum enhanced metrology. In this case, the generated quantum correlations are used to cancel quantum noise in the measurement record, which then leads to an improved relative signal-to-noise ratio in measurements of an external force. In conclusion, the successful observation of broadband quantum behavior on a macroscopic object at room temperature is an important milestone in the field of cavity optomechanics. Specifically, this result heralds the rise of optomechanical systems as a platform for quantum physics at room temperature and shows promise for generation of ponderomotive squeezing in room-temperature interferometers.
In the field of cavity optomechanics, proposals for quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements of phonon number provide a promising avenue by which one can study the quantum nature of nanoscale mechanical resonators. Here we investigate these QND measurements for an optomechanical system whereby quadratic coupling arises due to shared symmetries between a single optical resonance and a mechanical mode. We establish a relaxed limit on the amount of linear coupling that can exist in this type of system while still allowing for QND measurements of mechanical Fock states. The ability to perform optomechanical QND measurements of this nature would allow one to probe the decoherence of these mesoscopic states, providing an experimental test bed for quantum collapse theories.
Spontaneous wavefunction collapse theories provide the possibility to resolve the measurement problem of quantum mechanics. However, the best experimental tests to date have been limited by thermal fluctuations and have operated at frequencies far below those conjectured to allow the physical origins of collapse to be identified. Here we propose a new approach which can surpass these limitations. Our approach uses a nanoscale optomechanical system cooled to near its motional ground state. The scheme combines phonon counting with efficient mitigation of technical noise, including non-linear photon conversion and photon coincidence counting. It is capable of resolving the exquisitely small phonon fluxes required for a conclusive test of collapse models as well as potentially identifying their physical origin.
Abstract The generation of large-amplitude coherent states of a massive mechanical resonator, and their quantum-limited detection represent useful tools for quantum sensing and for testing fundamental physics theories. In fact, any weak perturbation may affect the coherent quantum evolution of the prepared state, providing a sensitive probe for such a perturbation. Here we consider a cavity optomechanical setup and the case of the detection of a weak mechanical nonlinearity. We consider different strategies, first focusing on the stationary dynamics in the presence of multiple tones driving the system, and then focusing on non-equilibrium dynamical strategies. These methods can be successfully applied for measuring Duffing-like material nonlinearities, or effective nonlinear corrections associated with quantum gravity theories.