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arXiv:quant-ph/0312166 · Physical Review A

Quantum limited force measurement in a cavityless optomechanical system

R. Fermani, Stefano Mancini, Paolo Tombesi

Published Oct 4, 2004• 16 citations
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Abstract

We study the possibility of revealing a weak coherent force by using a pendular mirror as a probe, and coupling this to a radiation field, which acts as the meter, in a cavityless configuration. We determine the sensitivity of such a scheme and show that the use of an entangled meter state greatly improves the ultimate detection limit. We also compare this scheme with that involving an optical cavity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.70.045801

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We study the possibility of revealing a weak coherent force by using a pendular mirror as a probe, and coupling this to a radiation field, which acts as the meter, in a cavityless configuration. We determine the sensitivity of such a scheme and show that the use of an entangled meter state greatly improves the ultimate detection limit. We also compare this scheme with that involving an optical cavity.
We study the detection of weak coherent forces by means of an optomechanical device formed by a highly reflecting isolated mirror shined by an intense quasimonochromatic laser beam. Radiation pressure excites a vibrational mode of the mirror, inducing sidebands of the incident field, which are then measured by heterodyne detection. We show that the sensitivity of such a scheme can surpass the standard quantum limit. In particular the use of an entangled input state of the two sideband modes improves the detection, even in the presence of damping and noise acting on the mechanical mode.
A quantum system composed of a cavity radiation field interacting with a movable mirror is considered and quantum statistical properties of the field are studied. Such a system can serve, in principle, as an idealized meter for detection of a weak classical force coupled to the mirror which is modelled by a quantum harmonic oscillator. It is shown that the standard quantum limit on the measurement of the mirror position arises naturally from the properties of the system during its dynamical evolution. However, the force detection sensitivity of the system falls short of the corresponding standard quantum limit. We also study the effect of the nonlinear interaction between the moving mirror and the radiation pressure on the quadrature fluctuations of the initially coherent cavity field.
We propose a sensing scheme for detecting weak forces that achieves Heisenberg-limited sensitivity without relying on entanglement or other non-classical resources. Our scheme utilizes coherent averaging across a chain of N optomechanical cavities, unidirectionally coupled via a laser beam. As the beam passes through the cavities, it accumulates phase shifts induced by a common external force acting on the mechanical elements. Remarkably, this fully classical approach achieves the sensitivity scaling typically associated with quantum-enhanced protocols, providing a robust and experimentally feasible route to precision sensing. Potential applications range from high-sensitivity gravitational field measurements at the Large Hadron Collider to probing dark matter interactions and detecting gravitational waves. This work opens a new pathway for leveraging coherent light-matter interactions for force sensing.
We theoretically investigate quantum measurement noise in a hybrid optomechanical system, focusing on radiation pressure back action and its impact on force sensing. The setup consists of an optomechanical cavity with a movable mirror, a fixed semi transparent mirror, an ensemble of quantum dots (QD) coupled to the cavity mode, and an intracavity optical parametric amplifier (OPA). We show how the QD induced response, together with the system nonlinearity, modifies the noise spectral density and thereby improves the force measurement sensitivity. In this setup, coherent quantum noise cancellation (CQNC) can completely remove the back action noise. In addition, increasing the OPA pump gain enables sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit (SQL) at reduced laser power. These combined effects allow weak force sensing beyond the SQL.
Cavity optomechanics originated from the research of interferometric detection of gravitational waves, and later became a fast-growing area of techniques and approaches ranging from the fields of atomic, molecular, and optical physics to nano-science and condensed matter physics as well. Recently, it focused on the exploration of operating mechanical oscillators deep in the quantum regime, with an interest ranging from quantum-classical interface tests to high-precision quantum metrology. In this paper, recent theoretical work of our group in the field of quantum measurement with cavity optomechanical systems is reviewed. We explore the quantum measurement theory and its applications with several unconventional cavity optomechanical schemes working in the quantum regime. This review covers the basics of quantum noises in the cavity optomechanical setups and the resulting standard quantum limit of precision displacement and force measurement. Three novel quantum measurement proposals based on the hybrid optomechanical system are introduced. First, we describe a quantum back-action insulated weak force sensor. It is realized by forming a quantum-mechanics-free subsystem with two optomechanical oscillators of reversed effective mass. Then we introduce a role-reversed atomic optomechanical system which enables the preparation and the quantum tomography of a variety of non-classical states of atoms. In this system, the cavity field acts as a mechanical oscillator driven by the radiation pressure force from an ultracold atomic field. In the end, we recommend a multimode optomechanical transducer that can detect intensities significantly below the single-photon level via adiabatic transfer of the microwave signal to the optical frequency domain. These proposals demonstrate the possible applications of optomechanical devices in understanding of quantum-classical crossover and in achieving quantum measurement limit.