Zhu Yicheng, Xue Boyi, Sun Yuncong, Geng Qi, Chen Yuping, Chen Xianfeng, Jiang Xiaoshun, Ge Li, Wan Wenjie
State Key Laboratory of Photonics and Communications, University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 May 20;122(20):e2422355122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2422355122. Epub 2025 May 12.
The ability to coherently manipulate phonons through light permits cooling and heating microscale quantum systems for various critical fields in metrology, information processing, and sensing. However, these physical systems often are hard to isolate and open for exchanging energy externally, making themselves non-Hermitian. Here, we experimentally observe a super-cooling/heating state in a non-Hermitian phononic dimer, where the two independent phonon modes of distinct cooling/heating rates become synchronous in cooling/heating. Such super cooling/heating is manifested in a Parity-Time symmetric state controlled by two counterpropagating optical pumps. These results reveal the non-Hermitian nature of the phonon dimer and illustrate a coherent technique for synchronous cooling/heating non-Hermitian systems, paving the way for practical applications in quantum sensing and metrology.
通过光来相干地操纵声子的能力，使得微尺度量子系统能够被冷却和加热，这对于计量学、信息处理和传感等各个关键领域而言至关重要。然而，这些物理系统往往难以隔离且难以对外界开放以进行能量交换，从而使其自身成为非厄米的。在此，我们通过实验在一个非厄米声子二聚体中观测到了一种超冷却/加热状态，其中具有不同冷却/加热速率的两个独立声子模式在冷却/加热过程中变得同步。这种超冷却/加热现象体现在由两个反向传播的光泵浦控制的宇称-时间对称状态中。这些结果揭示了声子二聚体的非厄米性质，并展示了一种用于同步冷却/加热非厄米系统的相干技术，为量子传感和计量学的实际应用铺平了道路。
