Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control is used for automatically regulating a measurable quantity to a desired setpoint. It is widely used in different types of classical control electronics. Here, we show how extending the feedback theory in quantum systems to include the derivative and integral parts influences both the transient and steady-state behavior of the amplitude and squeezing of a mechanical quadrature in an optomechanical system. We show that, in contrast to standard proportional feedback, derivative feedback affects both the conditional and unconditional squeezing. Furthermore, we demonstrate how feedback may be employed to drive a mechanical quadrature to track a desired reference signal. Our findings offer new routes for an improved quantum state control and measurement precision.
Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control is used for automatically regulating a measurable quantity to a desired setpoint. It is widely used in different types of classical control electronics. Here, we show how extending the feedback theory in quantum systems to include the derivative and integral parts influences both the transient and steady-state behavior of the amplitude and squeezing of a mechanical quadrature in an optomechanical system. We show that, in contrast to standard proportional feedback, derivative feedback affects both the conditional and unconditional squeezing. Furthermore, we demonstrate how feedback may be employed to drive a mechanical quadrature to track a desired reference signal. Our findings offer new routes for an improved quantum state control and measurement precision.
Backaction-evading (BAE) measurements of a mechanical resonator, by continuously monitoring a single quadrature of motion, can achieve precision below the zero-point uncertainty. When this happens, the measurement leaves the resonator in a quantum squeezed state. The squeezed state so generated is however conditional on the measurement outcomes, while for most applications it is desirable to have a deterministic, i.e., unconditional, squeezed state with the desired properties. In this work we apply feedback control to achieve deterministic manipulation of mechanical squeezing in an optomechanical system subject to a continuous BAE measurement. We study in details two strategies, direct (Markovian) and state-based (Bayesian) feedback. We show that both are capable to achieve optimal performances, i.e., a vanishing noise added by the feedback loop. Moreover, even when the feedback is restricted to be a time-varying mechanical force (experimentally friendly scenario) and an imperfect BAE regime is considered, the ensuing nonoptimal feedback may still obtain significant amount of squeezing. In particular, we show that Bayesian feedback control is nearly optimal for a wide range of sideband resolution. Our analysis is of direct relevance for ultrasensitive measurements and quantum state engineering in state-of-the-art optomechanical devices.
Abstract Feedback control is an essential component of many modern technologies and provides a key capability for emergent quantum technologies. We extend existing approaches of direct feedback control in which the controller applies a function directly proportional to the output signal (P feedback), to strategies in which feedback determined by an integrated output signal (I feedback), and to strategies in which feedback consists of a combination of P and I terms. The latter quantum PI feedback constitutes the analog of the widely used proportional-integral feedback of classical control. All of these strategies are experimentally feasible and require no complex state estimation. We apply the resulting formalism to two canonical quantum feedback control problems, namely, generation of an entangled state of two remote qubits, and stabilization of a harmonic oscillator under thermal noise under conditions of arbitrary measurement efficiency. These two problems allow analysis of the relative benefits of P, I, and PI feedback control. We find that for the two-qubit remote entanglement generation the best strategy can be a combined PI strategy when the measurement efficiency is less than one. In contrast, for harmonic state stabilization we find that P feedback shows the best performance when actuation of both position and momentum feedback is possible, while when only actuation of position is available, I feedback consistently shows the best performance, although feedback delay is shown to improve the performance of a P strategy here.
We give a concrete description of a controlled quantum stochastic dynamical model corresponding to a quantum system (a cavity mode) undergoing continual quadrature measurements, with a PID controller acting on the filtered estimate for the mode operator. The control has three feedback paths: P (proportional), I (integral) and D (derivative) of the error signal. Central use is made of the input and output pictures when constructing the model: these unitarily equivalent pictures are presented in the paper, and used to transfer concepts relating to the controlled internal dynamics to those relating to measurement output, and vice versa. The approach shows the general principle for investigating mathematically and physically consistent models in which standard control theoretic methods are to be extended to the quantum setting.
The squeezing of a mechanical mode can break through the “standard quantum limit”, which has significant applications in high-precision measurement. In this paper, we employ a full quantum stochastic method to investigate the dynamics of an optomechanical system under multi-tone driving. Previous method usually sets the classical mean value as a constant. For the dynamic process, this mean value should be time dependent, especially under the multi-tone driving. Here, we use the full quantum stochastic method, and we find that the mechanical squeezing exhibits nonmonotonic behavior with the enhancement of blue-sideband driving, which declines after reaching its maximum value; meanwhile, this system requires a longer time to evolve into a steady state. Moreover, the nonmonotonic trend of squeezing can also be observed by enhancing the strengths of both red- and blue-sideband driving simultaneously, and a shorter time is required to reach the steady state. This work provides valuable insights into the dynamics of an optomechanical system under multi-tone driving for the first time, which is of significant importance for improving the sensitivity of quantum precision measurement.
Multiparameter quantum estimation in open optomechanical systems is fundamentally constrained by dissipation, thermal fluctuations, and measurement incompatibility. In this work, we investigate a coupled cavity optomechanical platform in which two mechanical modes interact with driven optical cavities, two mode squeezed vacuum, intracavity degenerate parametric amplification, and coherent optical feedback. Using the continuous variable Gaussian state formalism, we derive the linearized quantum Langevin dynamics and steady state covariance matrix and evaluate the quantum Fisher information matrices associated with simultaneous estimation of the optomechanical coupling strength and cavity dissipation rate. We characterize the precision bounds using the symmetric and right logarithmic derivative formalisms and employ BMI=max{BS,BR} as a comparative figure of merit within the SLD/RLD framework. We find that parametric amplification can substantially reduce the most informative bound, BMI, thereby enhancing multiparameter estimation precision over a broad range of operating conditions. Coherent feedback can further reduce BMI and improve the estimation precision, particularly in the strong feedback regime. Moreover, the simultaneous presence of coherent feedback, parametric amplification, and squeezed light injection provides a combined mechanism for controlling quantum fluctuations and parameter dependent correlations, leading to enhanced and more robust multiparameter estimation. We further analyze the dynamical and steady state regimes to identify the parameter regions in which these quantum resources provide the largest metrological gain. Our results establish coupled cavity optomechanics as a flexible platform for quantum-noise engineering in multiparameter sensing.
The preparation of mechanical quadrature-squeezed states holds significant importance in cavity optomechanics because the squeezed states have extensive applications in understanding fundamental quantum mechanics and exploiting modern quantum technology. Here, we propose a reliable scheme for generating mechanical quadrature squeezing in a typical cavity optomechanical system via seeking optimal cavity-field driving pulses using the gradient-descent algorithm. We realize strong quadrature squeezing in a mechanical resonator that exceeds the 3-dB steady-state limit, even with a thermal phonon occupancy of 100. Furthermore, the mechanical squeezing can be ultrarapidly created within one mechanical oscillation period. We also obtain the optimal pulsed drivings associated with the created mechanical squeezings and analyze the mechanism for mechanical squeezing generation. This paper will promote the application of optimal quantum control in quantum optics and quantum information science.