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arXiv:1911.06412 · Physical Review Letters

Mechanical Squeezing via Fast Continuous Measurement

Chao Meng, George A. Brawley, James S. Bennett, Michael Ross Vanner, Warwick P. Bowen

Published Jul 24, 2020• 41 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We revisit quantum state preparation of an oscillator by continuous linear position measurement. Quite general analytical expressions are derived for the conditioned state of the oscillator. Remarkably, we predict that quantum squeezing is possible outside of both the backaction dominated and quantum coherent oscillation regimes, relaxing experimental requirements even compared to ground-state cooling. This provides a new way to generate nonclassical states of macroscopic mechanical oscillators, and opens the door to quantum sensing and tests of quantum macroscopicity at room temperature.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.125.043604

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Abstract We explore the generation of nonclassical mechanical states by combining continuous measurement and feedback control. We find that feedback-induced spring softening can greatly enhance position squeezing, allowing squeezing despite measurement rates slower than the mechanical frequency. Conversely, even from a pure position measurement, we find that spring hardening can enable momentum squeezing, in a new regime we term the fast feedback regime. We interpret these effects as arising from correlations between the feedback drive and the measurement imprecision noise, which in turn effectively modify the measurement rates for position and momentum. Together, this significantly lowers the barrier to measurement-based preparation of nonclassical mechanical states at room temperature.
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