In the emerging field of cavity optomagnonics, photons are coupled coherently to magnons in solid-state systems. These new systems are promising for implementing hybrid quantum technologies. Being able to prepare Fock states in such platforms is an essential step towards the implementation of quantum information schemes. We propose a magnon-heralding protocol to generate a magnon Fock state by detecting an optical cavity photon. Due to the peculiarities of the optomagnonic coupling, the protocol involves two distinct cavity photon modes. Solving the quantum Langevin equations of the coupled system, we show that the temporal scale of the heralding is governed by the magnon-photon cooperativity and derive the requirements for generating high fidelity magnon Fock states. We show that the nonclassical character of the heralded state, which is imprinted in the autocorrelation of an optical ``read'' mode, is only limited by the magnon lifetime for small enough temperatures. We address the detrimental effects of nonvacuum initial states, showing that high fidelity Fock states can be achieved by actively cooling the system prior to the protocol.
In the emerging field of cavity optomagnonics, photons are coupled coherently to magnons in solid-state systems. These new systems are promising for implementing hybrid quantum technologies. Being able to prepare Fock states in such platforms is an essential step towards the implementation of quantum information schemes. We propose a magnon-heralding protocol to generate a magnon Fock state by detecting an optical cavity photon. Due to the peculiarities of the optomagnonic coupling, the protocol involves two distinct cavity photon modes. Solving the quantum Langevin equations of the coupled system, we show that the temporal scale of the heralding is governed by the magnon-photon cooperativity and derive the requirements for generating high fidelity magnon Fock states. We show that the nonclassical character of the heralded state, which is imprinted in the autocorrelation of an optical ``read'' mode, is only limited by the magnon lifetime for small enough temperatures. We address the detrimental effects of nonvacuum initial states, showing that high fidelity Fock states can be achieved by actively cooling the system prior to the protocol.
Abstract We show how to prepare a steady-state entangled state between magnons and optical photons in an opto-magnomechanical configuration, where a mechanical vibration mode couples to a magnon mode in a ferrimagnet by the dispersive magnetostrictive interaction, and to an optical cavity by the radiation pressure. We find that, by appropriately driving the magnon mode and the cavity to simultaneously activate the magnomechanical Stokes and the optomechanical anti-Stokes scattering, a stationary optomagnonic entangled state can be created. We further show that, by activating the magnomechanical state–swap interaction and subsequently sending a weak red-detuned optical pulse to drive the cavity, the magnonic state can be read out in the cavity output field of the pulse via the mechanical transduction. The demonstrated entanglement and state-readout protocols in such a novel opto-magnomechanical configuration allow us to optically control, prepare, and read out quantum states of collective spin excitations in solids, and provide promising opportunities for the study of quantum magnonics, macroscopic quantum states, and magnonic quantum information processing.
Abstract Finding new strategies for the generation and preservation of quantum resources, e.g. entanglement between spatially separated macroscopic systems enables reliable and fertile platforms to study both fundamental quantum physics and fruitful applications such as quantum networks and distant quantum information processing. Here, we want to address how to generate magnon-magnon entanglement (MME) in an optomagnonic system based on the optical Bell-state measurement. To do so, we consider a hybrid optomagnonic system comprising of two identical, but distant dissipative microwave cavities, each containing a ferromagnetic YIG sphere and a superconducting qubit. Besides, each subsystem is driven via an external laser field. We numerically simulate the solution of the corresponding master equation and discuss the time-dependent as well as the steady state entanglement between the distant magnon modes at different interaction regime. Also, the fidelity of the generated entangled states is studied in detail. Generally, the dissipative environmental effects plague the MME, however, it is possible to generate a considerable amount of MME even at the steady state regime. Also, the results show that the robust MME may be enhanced by applying a relatively strong external pump decreasing the relative magnon damping rate as well as increasing the relative qubit-photon coupling strength, while some other parameters involved in the model, i.e. the atomic damping rate and detuning parameter do not considerably affect the amplitude (the maximum value) of MME. Exceptionally, although the magnon damping rate decreases the amount of MME, the entanglement stability takes place in a longer time interval in the strong magnonic damping regime. Moreover, the maximum of the steady state entanglement may be obtained in the moderate magnon-photon coupling regime provided that the system is driven by strong external pumps. Furthermore, the system can generate robust MME at steady state, especially in the small detuning regime. Our further investigations show that the system can provide relatively high-fidelity magnonic entangled states even in the presence of inevitable environmental effects. The proposed model offers an attractive platform for the generation of quantum resources to establish long-distance quantum networks based on magnonic and photonic systems.
Currently there is a growing interest in studying the coherent interaction between magnetic systems and electromagnetic radiation in a cavity, prompted partly by possible applications in hybrid quantum systems. We propose a multimode cavity optomagnonic system based on antiferromagnetic insulators, where optical photons couple coherently to the two homogeneous magnon modes of the antiferromagnet. These have frequencies typically in the THz range, a regime so far mostly unexplored in the realm of coherent interactions, and which makes antiferromagnets attractive for quantum transduction from THz to optical frequencies. We derive the theoretical model for the coupled system, and show that it presents unique characteristics. In particular, if the antiferromagnet presents hard-axis magnetic anisotropy, the optomagnonic coupling can be tuned by a magnetic field applied along the easy axis. This allows us to bring a selected magnon mode into and out of a dark mode, providing an alternative for a quantum memory protocol. The dynamical features of the driven system present unusual behavior due to optically induced magnon-magnon interactions, including regions of magnon heating for a red-detuned driving laser. The multimode character of the system is evident in a substructure of the optomagnonically induced transparency window.
We propose a feasible experimental model to investigate the generation and characterization of nonclassical states in a cavity optomagnonic system consisting of a ferromagnetic YIG sphere that simultaneously supports both the magnon mode and two whispering gallery modes of optical photons. The photons undergo the magnon-induced Brillouin light scattering, which is a well-established tool for the cavity-assisted manipulations of magnons as well as magnon spintronics. At first, we derive the desired interaction Hamiltonian under the influence of the anti-Stokes scattering process and then proceed to analyze the dynamical evolution of quantum statistics of photons and magnons as well as their intermodal entanglement. The results show that both photons and magnons generally acquire some nonclassical features, e.g., the strong antibunching and anti-correlation. Interestingly, the system may experience the perfect photon and magnon blockade phenomena, simultaneously. Besides, the nonclassical features may be protected against the unwanted environmental effects for a relatively long time, especially, in the weak driving field regime and when the system is initiated with a small number of particles. However, it should be noted that some fast quantum-classical transitions may occur in-between. Although the unwanted dissipative effects plague the nonclassical features, we show that this system can be adopted to prepare optomagnonic entangled states. The generation of entangled states depends on the initial state of the system and the interaction regime. The intermodal photon-magnon entanglement may be generated and pronounced, especially, if the system is initialized with low intensity even Schrödinger cat state in the strong coupling regime. The cavity-assisted manipulation of magnons is a unique and flexible mechanism that allows an interesting test bed for investigating the interdisciplinary contexts involving quantum optics and spintronics. Moreover, such a hybrid optomagnonic system may be used to design both on-demand single-photon and single-magnon sources and may find potential applications in quantum information processing.
We investigate magnon–photon pair antibunching in a cavity optomagnonic system, in which a yttrium iron garnet sphere simultaneously supports two optical modes and a magnon mode and is driven by squeezed light and coherent light. The results illustrate that by applying squeezed light, the conventional magnon–photon pair blockade (CMPPB) originating from anharmonic energy levels and the unconventional magnon–photon pair blockade (UMPPB) induced by destructive quantum interference can coexist in the same platform. Both blockade effects can be flexibly tuned by the driving detuning and the optomagnonic coupling strength. Within the explored parameter regime, the UMPPB exhibits a nontrivial dependence on the driving strengths of coherent light and squeezed light, and bunching regions may also appear. These results provide a tunable framework for controlling magnon–photon pair antibunching, which may be useful for the generation and manipulation of hybrid nonclassical states in cavity optomagnonic systems.