Generation of Fock states in a superconducting quantum circuit

Spin systems and harmonic oscillators comprise two archetypes in quantum mechanics. The spin-1/2 system, with two quantum energy levels, is essentially the most nonlinear system found in nature, whereas the harmonic oscillator represents the most linear, with an infinite number of evenly spaced quantum levels. A significant difference between these systems is that a two-level spin can be prepared in an arbitrary quantum state using classical excitations, whereas classical excitations applied to an oscillator generate a coherent state, nearly indistinguishable from a classical state. Quantum behaviour in an oscillator is most obvious in Fock states, which are states with specific numbers of energy quanta, but such states are hard to create. Here we demonstrate the controlled generation of multi-photon Fock states in a solid-state system. We use a superconducting phase qubit, which is a close approximation to a two-level spin system, coupled to a microwave resonator, which acts as a harmonic oscillator, to prepare and analyse pure Fock states with up to six photons. We contrast the Fock states with coherent states generated using classical pulses applied directly to the resonator.     

Laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state

The simple mechanical oscillator, canonically consisting of a coupled mass-spring system, is used in a wide variety of sensitive measurements, including the detection of weak forces and small masses. On the one hand, a classical oscillator has a well-defined amplitude of motion; a quantum oscillator, on the other hand, has a lowest-energy state, or ground state, with a finite-amplitude uncertainty corresponding to zero-point motion. On the macroscopic scale of our everyday experience, owing to interactions with its highly fluctuating thermal environment a mechanical oscillator is filled with many energy quanta and its quantum nature is all but hidden. Recently, in experiments performed at temperatures of a few hundredths of a kelvin, engineered nanomechanical resonators coupled to electrical circuits have been measured to be oscillating in their quantum ground state. These experiments, in addition to providing a glimpse into the underlying quantum behaviour of mesoscopic systems consisting of billions of atoms, represent the initial steps towards the use of mechanical devices as tools for quantum metrology or as a means of coupling hybrid quantum systems. Here we report the development of a coupled, nanoscale optical and mechanical resonator formed in a silicon microchip, in which radiation pressure from a laser is used to cool the mechanical motion down to its quantum ground state (reaching an average phonon occupancy number of 0.85 ± 0.08). This cooling is realized at an environmental temperature of 20?K, roughly one thousand times larger than in previous experiments and paves the way for optical control of mesoscale mechanical oscillators in the quantum regime.     

Sub-kelvin optical cooling of a micromechanical resonator

Micromechanical resonators, when cooled down to near their ground state, can be used to explore quantum effects such as superposition and entanglement at a macroscopic scale. Previously, it has been proposed to use electronic feedback to cool a high frequency (10 MHz) resonator to near its ground state. In other work, a low frequency resonator was cooled from room temperature to 18 K by passive optical feedback. Additionally, active optical feedback of atomic force microscope cantilevers has been used to modify their response characteristics, and cooling to approximately 2 K has been measured. Here we demonstrate active optical feedback cooling to 135 +/- 15 mK of a micromechanical resonator integrated with a high-quality optical resonator. Additionally, we show that the scheme should be applicable at cryogenic base temperatures, allowing cooling to near the ground state that is required for quantum experiments--near 100 nK for a kHz oscillator.     

Radiation-pressure cooling and optomechanical instability of a micromirror

Recent table-top optical interferometry experiments and advances in gravitational-wave detectors have demonstrated the capability of optical interferometry to detect displacements with high sensitivity. Operation at higher powers will be crucial for further sensitivity enhancement, but dynamical effects caused by radiation pressure on the interferometer mirrors must be taken into account, and the appearance of optomechanical instabilities may jeopardize the stable operation of the next generation of interferometers. These instabilities are the result of a nonlinear coupling between the motion of the mirrors and the optical field, which modifies the effective dynamics of the mirror. Such 'optical spring' effects have already been demonstrated for the mechanical damping of an electromagnetic waveguide with a moving wall, the resonance frequency of a specially designed flexure oscillator, and the optomechanical instability of a silica microtoroidal resonator. Here we present an experiment where a micromechanical resonator is used as a mirror in a very high-finesse optical cavity, and its displacements are monitored with unprecedented sensitivity. By detuning the laser frequency with respect to the cavity resonance, we have observed a drastic cooling of the microresonator by intracavity radiation pressure, down to an effective temperature of 10 kelvin. For opposite detuning, efficient heating is observed, as well as a radiation-pressure-induced instability of the resonator. Further experimental progress and cryogenic operation may lead to the experimental observation of the quantum ground state of a micromechanical resonator, either by passive or active cooling techniques.     

线性谐振子与匀速圆周运动

用经典力学的方法讨论了质点匀速圆周运动与谐振动的关系问题,给出了线性谐振子位移、速度、加速度表达式,用因果律和牛顿第二运动定律,说明了三者之间的位相差关系;得到了万有引力场中二质点系统线性谐振子力常量k=-Gm1 m2/r3的结果,讨论了其物理意义,纠正了长期以来认为谐振子能量总是大于零的错误认识.引入了线性电谐振子概念;给出了讨论椭圆轨道电线性谐振子、不同轨道上价电子线性电谐振子的方法;介绍了实空间电线性谐振子转化为量子力学线性谐振子的方法.     

高斯脉冲冷却机械振子

光力学系统常被用来实现机械振子的基态冷却,进而实现宏观量子态制备.如何获得更好的冷却效果是光力冷却的核心问题.然而理论证明,采用单束连续光来驱动机械振子存在冷却极限,即无法通过提高驱动强度或振子频率来获得更低的冷却比率,因而需要发展新的动力学理论.我们探讨采用高斯脉冲来驱动机械振子,这一光力学系统在绝大多数情况下不存在稳态,无法使用常用的线性化展开来处理.我们采用新的线性化方法获得有效哈密顿量,由此可以获得光力学系统的动力学演化,进而直接得到系统热声子数的变化.通过详细分析脉冲波形、脉冲强度以及脉冲宽度对热声子数演化的影响,证明选择合适的驱动强度、脉冲宽度,机械振子可以被单个脉冲冷却到基态,并通过多个脉冲来保持在基态.甚至利用脉冲波形中驱动强度的增、减,可以延缓压缩效应对光力系统造成的加热.由此可以突破单束连续驱动的冷却极限,甚至通过强、短高斯脉冲可以将冷却极限降低1/2,展现出脉冲驱动冷却光力学系统的优势.     

Interaction-based quantum metrology showing scaling beyond the Heisenberg limit

Quantum metrology aims to use entanglement and other quantum resources to improve precision measurement. An interferometer using N independent particles to measure a parameter χ can achieve at best the standard quantum limit of sensitivity, δχ?∝?N(-1/2). However, using N entangled particles and exotic states, such an interferometer can in principle achieve the Heisenberg limit, δχ?∝?N(-1). Recent theoretical work has argued that interactions among particles may be a valuable resource for quantum metrology, allowing scaling beyond the Heisenberg limit. Specifically, a k-particle interaction will produce sensitivity δχ?∝?N(-k) with appropriate entangled states and δχ?∝?N(-(k-1/2)) even without entanglement. Here we demonstrate 'super-Heisenberg' scaling of δχ?∝?N(-3/2) in a nonlinear, non-destructive measurement of the magnetization of an atomic ensemble. We use fast optical nonlinearities to generate a pairwise photon-photon interaction (corresponding to k = 2) while preserving quantum-noise-limited performance. We observe super-Heisenberg scaling over two orders of magnitude in N, limited at large numbers by higher-order nonlinear effects, in good agreement with theory. For a measurement of limited duration, super-Heisenberg scaling allows the nonlinear measurement to overtake in sensitivity a comparable linear measurement with the same number of photons. In other situations, however, higher-order nonlinearities prevent this crossover from occurring, reflecting the subtle relationship between scaling and sensitivity in nonlinear systems. Our work shows that interparticle interactions can improve sensitivity in a quantum-limited measurement, and experimentally demonstrates a new resource for quantum metrology.     

Amplifying quantum signals with the single-electron transistor

Transistors have continuously reduced in size and increased in switching speed since their invention in 1947. The exponential pace of transistor evolution has led to a revolution in information acquisition, processing and communication technologies. And reigning over most digital applications is a single device structure--the field-effect transistor (FET). But as device dimensions approach the nanometre scale, quantum effects become increasingly important for device operation, and conceptually new transistor structures may need to be adopted. A notable example of such a structure is the single-electron transistor, or SET. Although it is unlikely that SETs will replace FETs in conventional electronics, they should prove useful in ultra-low-noise analog applications. Moreover, because it is not affected by the same technological limitations as the FET, the SET can approach closely the quantum limit of sensitivity. It might also be a useful read-out device for a solid-state quantum computer.     

Quantum-coherent coupling of a mechanical oscillator to an optical cavity mode

Optical laser fields have been widely used to achieve quantum control over the motional and internal degrees of freedom of atoms and ions, molecules and atomic gases. A route to controlling the quantum states of macroscopic mechanical oscillators in a similar fashion is to exploit the parametric coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom through radiation pressure in suitably engineered optical cavities. If the optomechanical coupling is 'quantum coherent'--that is, if the coherent coupling rate exceeds both the optical and the mechanical decoherence rate--quantum states are transferred from the optical field to the mechanical oscillator and vice versa. This transfer allows control of the mechanical oscillator state using the wide range of available quantum optical techniques. So far, however, quantum-coherent coupling of micromechanical oscillators has only been achieved using microwave fields at millikelvin temperatures. Optical experiments have not attained this regime owing to the large mechanical decoherence rates and the difficulty of overcoming optical dissipation. Here we achieve quantum-coherent coupling between optical photons and a micromechanical oscillator. Simultaneously, coupling to the cold photon bath cools the mechanical oscillator to an average occupancy of 1.7?±?0.1 motional quanta. Excitation with weak classical light pulses reveals the exchange of energy between the optical light field and the micromechanical oscillator in the time domain at the level of less than one quantum on average. This optomechanical system establishes an efficient quantum interface between mechanical oscillators and optical photons, which can provide decoherence-free transport of quantum states through optical fibres. Our results offer a route towards the use of mechanical oscillators as quantum transducers or in microwave-to-optical quantum links.     

Cooling a nanomechanical resonator with quantum back-action

Quantum mechanics demands that the act of measurement must affect the measured object. When a linear amplifier is used to continuously monitor the position of an object, the Heisenberg uncertainty relationship requires that the object be driven by force impulses, called back-action. Here we measure the back-action of a superconducting single-electron transistor (SSET) on a radio-frequency nanomechanical resonator. The conductance of the SSET, which is capacitively coupled to the resonator, provides a sensitive probe of the latter's position; back-action effects manifest themselves as an effective thermal bath, the properties of which depend sensitively on SSET bias conditions. Surprisingly, when the SSET is biased near a transport resonance, we observe cooling of the nanomechanical mode from 550 mK to 300 mK--an effect that is analogous to laser cooling in atomic physics. Our measurements have implications for nanomechanical readout of quantum information devices and the limits of ultrasensitive force microscopy (such as single-nuclear-spin magnetic resonance force microscopy). Furthermore, we anticipate the use of these back-action effects to prepare ultracold and quantum states of mechanical structures, which would not be accessible with existing technology.     

简谐振子波函数的代数解及Hermite多项式的递推

简谐振子模型是量子力学中极其简单又重要的模型,其物理思想在其他相关的学科中都有着广泛的应用,通过多种途径去深入理解简谐振子模型,对理解量子力学的实质和运用量子力学作为工具去研究微观物理模型都有重要的意义;另一方面在实际工作中应用代数方法去求解力学量的本征值和波函数是研究量子力学的主要手段.以简谐振子为例,运用代数方法,先给出一维简谐振子的波函数,从而推广到多维简谐振子,并结合相应算符的对易关系给出Hermite多项式及其递推关系,回避了通过级数展开去求解Hermite方程的过程;同时指出<厄米本征值问题的探究>一文中的不足之处.     

非线性非谐振子的SU（1,1）Lie代数

根据量子力学中的不变量理论，利用ＳＵ（１，１）Ｌｉｅ代数，对两种类型的非线性非谐振子的量子理论进行详细研讨。     

量子系统的不变量理论

由量子力学的基本原理出发，引入量子不变量，并根据Ｓ０（３）Ｌｉｅ代数和ＳＵ（１，１－Ｌｉｅ代数，分别对变化磁场中，自旋为ｊ中的中性粒子和频率与时间有关谐振子的Ｓｃｈｒｏｄｉｎｇｅｒ方程解进行剖析。     

量子谐振子与经典谐振子的比较

在Heisenberg表象,通过引入升降算符求解了量子谐振子,计算了任意初态情况下坐标、动量、动能、势能和哈密顿量的期望值,并同经典谐振子的相应力学量进行了比较,得出了量子谐振子只能在一定条件下趋近于经典谐振子而不可能等同。     

高次正幂与逆幂势函数叠加的径向薛定谔方程的求解研究

在一般参考文献中,对于薛定谔方程解析解的研究,只讨论了势函数为库仑势或谐振子势时的本征波函数及其本征值(能级)的严格求解,对于复杂的原子体系,其能量状态由组成原子的各个粒子之间的相互作用力决定。各个电子除受到原子核的中心库仑力作用外,各个电子之间还存在非中心静电     

Coupled quantized mechanical oscillators

The harmonic oscillator is one of the simplest physical systems but also one of the most fundamental. It is ubiquitous in nature, often serving as an approximation for a more complicated system or as a building block in larger models. Realizations of harmonic oscillators in the quantum regime include electromagnetic fields in a cavity and the mechanical modes of a trapped atom or macroscopic solid. Quantized interaction between two motional modes of an individual trapped ion has been achieved by coupling through optical fields, and entangled motion of two ions in separate locations has been accomplished indirectly through their internal states. However, direct controllable coupling between quantized mechanical oscillators held in separate locations has not been realized previously. Here we implement such coupling through the mutual Coulomb interaction of two ions held in trapping potentials separated by 40?μm (similar work is reported in a related paper). By tuning the confining wells into resonance, energy is exchanged between the ions at the quantum level, establishing that direct coherent motional coupling is possible for separately trapped ions. The system demonstrates a building block for quantum information processing and quantum simulation. More broadly, this work is a natural precursor to experiments in hybrid quantum systems, such as coupling a trapped ion to a quantized macroscopic mechanical or electrical oscillator.     

Circuit cavity electromechanics in the strong-coupling regime

Demonstrating and exploiting the quantum nature of macroscopic mechanical objects would help us to investigate directly the limitations of quantum-based measurements and quantum information protocols, as well as to test long-standing questions about macroscopic quantum coherence. Central to this effort is the necessity of long-lived mechanical states. Previous efforts have witnessed quantum behaviour, but for a low-quality-factor mechanical system. The field of cavity optomechanics and electromechanics, in which a high-quality-factor mechanical oscillator is parametrically coupled to an electromagnetic cavity resonance, provides a practical architecture for cooling, manipulation and detection of motion at the quantum level. One requirement is strong coupling, in which the interaction between the two systems is faster than the dissipation of energy from either system. Here, by incorporating a free-standing, flexible aluminium membrane into a lumped-element superconducting resonant cavity, we have increased the single-photon coupling strength between these two systems by more than two orders of magnitude, compared to previously obtained coupling strengths. A parametric drive tone at the difference frequency between the mechanical oscillator and the cavity resonance dramatically increases the overall coupling strength, allowing us to completely enter the quantum-enabled, strong-coupling regime. This is evidenced by a maximum normal-mode splitting of nearly six bare cavity linewidths. Spectroscopic measurements of these 'dressed states' are in excellent quantitative agreement with recent theoretical predictions. The basic circuit architecture presented here provides a feasible path to ground-state cooling and subsequent coherent control and measurement of long-lived quantum states of mechanical motion.     

有限自由度谐振子系统的力学问题

研究了有限自由度的谐振子系统，先给出了它的运动方程，并对其求解，又导出了它的运动方程的拉格朗日形式和哈密顿形式，将谐振子系统量子化后，由海森伯方程也可得出其运动方程。最后把经典力学和量子力学同时运用到谐振子系统的多种状态并且把它们推广到n维，从而验证了海森伯方程和哈密顿正则方程对谐振子系统的等价性。     

声表面波谐振型气体传感器的研究

分析和设计了声表面波谐振型气体传感器的叉指换能器和反射栅的最佳结构,研制了ST切石英基底的双端对声表面波谐振型气体传感器,研制了一种高稳定性的振荡器电路。用所研制的ST切石英基底,谐振频率148.5 MHz,敏感薄膜为酞菁铜的双端对声表面波谐振型气体传感器进行了NO_2气体传感检测实验,检测了传感器声表面波振幅的变化,其优点是传感器的声表面波振幅的温度波动远小于通常传感器所检测的声速,提高检测温度稳定性。实验结果证明了所研制的器件具有很好的实用性。