Talk on Generating Mechanical Interference Fringes by Counting Photons

05.07.2017 11:00 - 12:00

Martin Ringbauer from the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, will give a talk on Generating Mechanical Interference Fringes by Counting Photons.

Optomechanics is one of the most promising platforms for testing macroscopic quantum phenomena and develop novel force sensors. Yet, preparing quantum states of mechanical motion has proven difficult due to stringent requirements on cooling and interaction strength. I will present a new method for conditional preparation of non-classical states of motion of an optomechanical system which overcomes these major roadblocks. Exploiting the nonlinearity of single-photon measurements, our method is independent of the initial thermal occupation of the resonator and does not require strong single-photon coupling. We demonstrated this technique in a thermal regime and observed interference fringes in the position quadrature distribution of a SiN membrane.

Organiser:
Hosted by: Philip Walther
Location:
Ernst-Mach lecture hall, 2nd floor, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna