Meng Chao, Brawley George A, Khademi Soroush, Bridge Elizabeth M, Bennett James S, Bowen Warwick P
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
Terra15 Technologies Pty Ltd., Level 9/256 Adelaide Terrace, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia.
Sci Adv. 2022 May 27;8(21):eabm7585. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm7585.
Nanomechanical resonators are a key tool for future quantum technologies, such as quantum force sensors and interfaces, and for studies of macroscopic quantum physics. The ability to prepare room temperature nonclassical states is a major outstanding challenge. It has been suggested that this could be achieved using a fast continuous measurement to break the usual symmetry between position and momentum. Here, we demonstrate this symmetry breaking and use it to prepare a thermally squeezed mechanical state. Our experiments take advantage of collective measurements on multiple mechanical modes, which we show can increase the measurement speed and improve state preparation. Theoretically, we show that this result extends to the quantum regime, relaxing the requirements to generate nonclassical states. We predict that multimode conditioning can enable room temperature quantum squeezing with existing technology. Our work paves the way toward room temperature quantum nanomechanical devices and toward their application in quantum technology and fundamental science.
纳米机械谐振器是未来量子技术（如量子力传感器和接口）以及宏观量子物理研究的关键工具。制备室温非经典态的能力是一项重大的突出挑战。有人提出，可以通过快速连续测量来打破位置和动量之间通常的对称性来实现这一点。在这里，我们展示了这种对称性破缺，并利用它来制备热压缩机械态。我们的实验利用了对多个机械模式的集体测量，我们表明这可以提高测量速度并改善态制备。从理论上讲，我们表明这个结果扩展到了量子领域，放宽了生成非经典态的要求。我们预测，多模调节可以利用现有技术实现室温量子压缩。我们的工作为室温量子纳米机械设备及其在量子技术和基础科学中的应用铺平了道路。
