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Photonics Research

Quantum-enhanced optomechanical accelerometer

Wei Li, Qinghui Li, Yufan Wang, Yajun Wang, Long Tian, Shaoping Shi, Yaohui Zheng

Published Oct 1, 2025• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Acceleration sensing, an essential branch of quantum sensing, faces a fundamental trade-off between resolution and bandwidth. Here, we present a quantum-enhanced optomechanical accelerometer (QEOMA), simultaneously achieving the improvement of the sensing resolution and bandwidth in contrast with a classical counterpart. By tailoring quantum squeezed light, the optomechanical cooperativity is significantly raised, extending the sensing bandwidth. Quantum squeezed light increases the equivalent Q value of the optomechanical accelerometer owing to the reduction of the mechanical damping rate, driving the resolution improvement at the resonance frequency. At off-resonance frequencies, the resolution improvement is attributed to the imprecision noise reduction. We obtain the measured noise power spectrum and inferred acceleration resolution for the (3,3), (4,4), (5,5), and (6,6) mechanical modes, respectively. The maximum quantum enhancement is measured for the (6,6) mechanical mode with a 38.4% resolution enhancement and 1.55-fold bandwidth broadening in contrast with a coherent probe. The proposed QEOMA shows significant potential for applications ranging from ultralight dark matter searches to inertial navigation of fast-moving objects.

DOI
10.1364/prj.573361

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Acceleration sensing, an essential branch of quantum sensing, faces a fundamental trade-off between resolution and bandwidth. Here, we present a quantum-enhanced optomechanical accelerometer (QEOMA), simultaneously achieving the improvement of the sensing resolution and bandwidth in contrast with a classical counterpart. By tailoring quantum squeezed light, the optomechanical cooperativity is significantly raised, extending the sensing bandwidth. Quantum squeezed light increases the equivalent Q value of the optomechanical accelerometer owing to the reduction of the mechanical damping rate, driving the resolution improvement at the resonance frequency. At off-resonance frequencies, the resolution improvement is attributed to the imprecision noise reduction. We obtain the measured noise power spectrum and inferred acceleration resolution for the (3,3), (4,4), (5,5), and (6,6) mechanical modes, respectively. The maximum quantum enhancement is measured for the (6,6) mechanical mode with a 38.4% resolution enhancement and 1.55-fold bandwidth broadening in contrast with a coherent probe. The proposed QEOMA shows significant potential for applications ranging from ultralight dark matter searches to inertial navigation of fast-moving objects.
Abstract Squeezed light has long been used to enhance the precision of a single optomechanical sensor. An emerging set of proposals seeks to use arrays of optomechanical sensors to detect weak distributed forces, for applications ranging from gravity-based subterranean imaging to dark matter searches; however, a detailed investigation into the quantum-enhancement of this approach remains outstanding. Here, we propose an array of entanglement-enhanced optomechanical sensors to improve the broadband sensitivity of distributed force sensing. By coherently operating the optomechanical sensor array and distributing squeezing to entangle the optical fields, the array of sensors has a scaling advantage over independent sensors (i.e., M→M\sqrt{M}\to MM​→M M → M , where M is the number of sensors) due to coherence as well as joint noise suppression due to multi-partite entanglement. As an illustration, we consider entanglement-enhancement of an optomechanical accelerometer array to search for dark matter, and elucidate the challenge of realizing a quantum advantage in this context.
Quantum sensing using atom interferometry possesses immense potential for application in gravimetry, inertial navigation and for gravitational wave detection, apart from carrying out tests of fundamental physics. Atom interferometry can be used to perform absolute inertial measurements with unprecedented long term stability, unlike classical sensors which are prone to drift and incur calibration errors. However, atom interferometers seldom achieve their fundamental sensitivity due to the coupling of ambient vibrations. It is the dominant noise source that not only impairs performance but also affects its operability. Ideal compensation of the effects due to vibration noise using a versatile accelerometer, while concurrently enabling miniaturized atom interferometer setups has not been pioneered. Such a compact hybrid quantum sensor will enable reliable operation with an enhanced performance in field applications, paving the way for robust atom interferometry beyond laboratory conditions. A novel optomechanical resonator has been designed, developed and successfully hybridized with an atom interferometer to suppress the effects of vibration noise, and the results are presented in this thesis. The optomechanical resonator’s inertial test mass is simultaneously used to create a continuous intracavity optical lattice to sense its displacement, and a pulsed optical lattice to manipulate the atoms. For the first time, a broadband accelerometer is seamlessly hybridized with an atom interferometer via mechanical resonator mediated coupling of the optical lattices to measure acceleration. This enables elimination of vibration induced measurement ambiguity in our atom interferometer with a well defined mechanical transfer function. Vibration noise correlation is demonstrated up to our prototype atom interferometer’s most sensitive operating mode of T = 6 ms using double Bragg diffraction, ultimately limited by its technical noise. The optomechanical resonator measures acceleration with a sensitivity down to 1.1×10−6 ms−2/ √Hz corresponding to a displacement sensitivity of 8.6 × 10−15 m/ √Hz. Substantial 1/f noise suppression due to the developed optical readout scheme enables a measurement bandwidth spanning from sub-hertz frequencies up to several kilohertz. Multiple versions of the optomechanical resonator with different characteristics were developed and hybridized with our atom interferometer. This paves the way for developing tailored optomechanical resonators for specific inertial sensing applications.
The accelerometer plays a crucial role in inertial navigation. The performance of conventional accelerometers such as lasers is usually limited by the sensing elements and shot noise limitation (SNL). Here, we propose an advanced development of an accelerometer based on atom–light quantum correlation, which is composed of a cold atomic ensemble, light beams, and an atomic vapor cell. The cold atomic ensemble, prepared in a magneto-optical trap and free-falling in a vacuum chamber, interacts with light beams to generate atom–light quantum correlation. The atomic vapor cell is used as both a memory element storing the correlated photons emitted from cold atoms and a bandwidth controller through the control of free evolution time. Instead of using a conventional sensing element, the proposed accelerometer employs interference between quantum-correlated atoms and light to measure acceleration. Sensitivity below SNL can be achieved due to atom–light quantum correlation, even in the presence of optical loss and atomic decoherence. Sensitivity can be achieved at the ng / Hz level, based on evaluation via practical experimental conditions. The present design has a number of significant advantages over conventional accelerometers such as SNL-broken sensitivity, broad bandwidth from a few hundred Hz to near MHz, and avoidance of the technical restrictions of conventional sensing elements.
Optomechanical sensors are capable of transducing external perturbations to resolvable optical signals. A particular regime of interest is that of high-bandwidth force detection, where an impulse is delivered to the system over a short period of time. Exceedingly sensitive impulse detection has been proposed to observe very weak signals like those due to long-range interactions with dark matter that require much higher sensitivities than current sensors can provide. Quantum resources to go beyond the traditional standard quantum limit of these sensors include squeezing of the light used to transduce the signal, backaction evasion by measuring the optimal quadrature, and quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements that reduce backaction directly. These methods have been developed in the context of gravitational wave detection for target frequencies in the audio band range. Here, we provide the theoretical limits to quantum noise reduction for higher and broader frequency targets, such as those from dark matter signals, while combining quantum-enhanced readout techniques based on squeezed light and QND measurements with optomechanical sensors. We demonstrate that backaction evasion through QND techniques dramatically reduces the technical challenges presented when using squeezed light for broadband force detection, paving the way for combining multiple quantum noise reduction techniques for enhanced sensitivity in the context of impulse metrology.
We propose an ultrasensitive displacement measurement scheme to overcome the standard quantum limit (SQL) in the unresolved sideband cavity optomechanical system with nonlinear optomechanical coupling and squeezed light injection. By introducing the optimized quantum correlation, which is enabled by suitable choices of the squeezing angle, squeezing level, power of the probe light, and measurement angle of homodyne detection, the off-resonant displacement sensitivity reaches 6 dB below the SQL in linear optomechanical coupling. In contrast, displacement sensitivities with a coherent probe plus variational readout and squeezed probe plus fixed measurement angle (phase quadrature) are 2.6 dB and 4.6 dB below the SQL, respectively. By combining linear and quadratic optomechanical coupling, we show that the displacement sensitivity can be further improved to 9.6 dB below the SQL. Our results have potential applications in gravitational-wave detectors, quantum metrology, and the search for dark matter.
We determine the theoretical limits to squeezing-enhanced measurement sensitivity of mechanical motion in a cavity optomechanical system. The motion of a mechanical resonator is transduced onto quadrature fluctuations of a cavity optical field and a measurement is performed on the optical field exiting the cavity. We compare measurement sensitivities obtained with coherent probing and quantum-enhanced probing of the mechanical motion, i.e. the coherent probe field carries vacuum states and quadrature squeezed vacuum states at sideband frequencies, respectively. We find that quantum-enhanced probing provides little to no improvement in motion sensing for resonators in the unresolved sideband regime but may significantly increase measurement sensitivities for resonators in the resolved sideband regime.