Special CPM Seminar

Engineering quantum states of nanomechanical resonators

M. J. Woolley

University of Queensland

There has recently been a surge of interest in the study of mechanical systems near the quantum limit. I shall briefly review recent experimental progress in cooling mechanical resonators towards their quantum ground state, and in demonstrating near quantum-limited detection of their motion. Beyond cooling to the ground state, one seeks to generate and detect quantum states of the mechanical resonator. One system in which this may be achieved consists of a nanomechanical resonator capacitively coupled to a superconducting microwave cavity. I shall discuss a calculation of the entanglement achievable in such a system, and a scheme for the generation and detection of quantum squeezed states via mechanical parametric amplification. By including a Cooper pair box in the microwave cavity, a variety of new possibilities emerge. A scheme for the quantum non-demolition measurement and conditional generation of number states of the nanoresonator, via Markovian feedback control of the coupled circuit QED system, shall be described.