This work aims to coherently couple light to a macroscopic mechanical oscillator via a radiation pressure force and to explore quantum entanglement between light and the mechanical oscillator in such an optomechanical system. Specific objectives of the project include preparing a macroscopic mechanical oscillator near its motional ground state and entangling the mechanical oscillator with light through a two-mode-squeezing optomechanical process. The experimental effort will focus on the study of transient, instead of steady-state, optomechanical interactions, which should enable entanglement operations in a timescale short compared with the mechanical decoherence time. The project will also develop optomechanical resonators that can feature high mechanical quality factor, ultrahigh optical finesse, as well as strong optomechanical coupling. A particular emphasis is to realize a well-isolated optomechanical system for exploring macroscopic quantum phenomena in an otherwise classical mechanical system. This work makes contributions to education and human resource by providing excellent training to graduate and undergraduate students in areas of both scientific and technological importance.
Quantum mechanics, as a fundamental theory, describes the microscopic world of electrons, atoms and molecules and predicts strange or weird behaviors, such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement. Exquisite control of these quantum behaviors has now been achieved in a variety of microscopic systems. Applying quantum mechanics to otherwise classical objects or systems in the macroscopic world, however, encounters both conceptual and technical issues. The optomechanical system developed in this project provides us a specific experimental platform for investigating quantum behaviors in a macroscopic mechanical system. In such a system, one can control the mechanical motion down to the quantum regime by exploiting the interaction between light and the mechanical motion. Extending the study and control of quantum behaviors to this macroscopic system can potentially shed light on the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds and can also have significant impact on the development of quantum technologies such as such as quantum information processing and precision or ultra-sensitive measurements.
