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Left: scanning electron microscope image of an optomechanical disk resonator mechanically shielded from the environment (nanofabrication by our team). Right: theoretical Wigner function of a superposition Fock state.

The motion of massive, mesoscopic-scale mechanical resonators can behave quantum mechanically when cooled down to ultra-low temperatures. The exploration of such systems in the quantum regime has interests ranging from fundamental testing of quantum mechanics in mesoscopic massive objects to their use as quantum sensors, or in quantum networks, e.g. for transducing or storing the quantum information.

This PhD project aims at shaping arbitrary target quantum states of motion [1] of an optomechanical resonator such as the microdisk pictured on the right and developed in our group. The mechanical quantum information can be encoded in the device through its interaction with light [2], and then characterized through optical tomographic reconstruction [3]. This work will also consider increasing the dimensionality by including several optomechanical resonators, thereby involving entanglement between massive objects.

Methods and techniques: Quantum optomechanics, single-photon counting, quantum state tomography, cryogenics

[1] MR Vanner, M Aspelmeyer and MS Kim, PRL 110, 010504 (2013).
[2] I Favero and K Karrai, Nat. Phot. 3, 201 (2009). M Aspelmeyer, T Kippenberg and F Marquardt, Rev. Mod. Phys. 86, 1391 (2014).
[3] MR Vanner, I Pikovski, and MS Kim, Ann. Phys. 527 (2015).

Contact : Adrien Borne