Light-mediated strong coupling between a mechanical oscillator and atomic spins 1 meter apart

authored by: Thomas M Karg, Baptiste Gouraud, Chun Tat Ngai, Gian-Luca Schmid, Klemens Hammerer, Philipp Treutlein
Abstract: Engineering strong interactions between quantum systems is essential for many phenomena of quantum physics and technology. Typically, strong coupling relies on short-range forces or on placing the systems in high-quality electromagnetic resonators, which restricts the range of the coupling to small distances. We used a free-space laser beam to strongly couple a collective atomic spin and a micromechanical membrane over a distance of 1 meter in a room-temperature environment. The coupling is highly tunable and allows the observation of normal-mode splitting, coherent energy exchange oscillations, two-mode thermal noise squeezing, and dissipative coupling. Our approach to engineering coherent long-distance interactions with light makes it possible to couple very different systems in a modular way, opening up a range of opportunities for quantum control and coherent feedback networks.
Organisation(s): Institute of Theoretical Physics
Institute of Gravitation Physics
CRC 1227 Designed Quantum States of Matter (DQ-mat)
External Organisation(s): University of Basel
Type: Article
Journal: Science
Volume: 369
Pages: 174-179
No. of pages: 6
ISSN: 0036-8075
Publication date: 10.07.2020
Publication status: Published
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General
Electronic version(s): http://arxiv.org/pdf/2004.14424 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb0328 (Access: Closed)

BibTeX

@article{dab788dc194a4ac780febc67a1253c00,
title = "Light-mediated strong coupling between a mechanical oscillator and atomic spins 1 meter apart",
abstract = "Engineering strong interactions between quantum systems is essential for many phenomena of quantum physics and technology. Typically, strong coupling relies on short-range forces or on placing the systems in high-quality electromagnetic resonators, which restricts the range of the coupling to small distances. We used a free-space laser beam to strongly couple a collective atomic spin and a micromechanical membrane over a distance of 1 meter in a room-temperature environment. The coupling is highly tunable and allows the observation of normal-mode splitting, coherent energy exchange oscillations, two-mode thermal noise squeezing, and dissipative coupling. Our approach to engineering coherent long-distance interactions with light makes it possible to couple very different systems in a modular way, opening up a range of opportunities for quantum control and coherent feedback networks.",
author = "Karg, {Thomas M} and Baptiste Gouraud and Ngai, {Chun Tat} and Gian-Luca Schmid and Klemens Hammerer and Philipp Treutlein",
note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} , American Association for the Advancement of Science.",
year = "2020",
month = jul,
day = "10",
doi = "10.1126/science.abb0328",
language = "English",
volume = "369",
pages = "174--179",
journal = "Science",
issn = "0036-8075",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "6500",
}