Millen, James

Date:   Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018
Time:   14:00
Place:   ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg, HPF G 6
Host:    Lukas Novotny

Rotational Optomechanics

James Millen
King's College London, England

Optomechanical systems may well be key devices in quantum technology, by storing and transducing quantum signals, and generating entanglement between optical and mechanical modes. By levitating the mechanical element, dissipation is drastically reduced, promising long-lived quantum states, high-fidelity signal processing, and even the potential to test the limits of quantum physics.

By working with levitated objects it is possible to access rotational degrees of freedom, which is impossible in a clamped system. Rotation is fundamentally different to vibration, both in the classical and quantum domains. We have optically trapped [1], driven [1] and frequency-locked [2] the rotation of nanoscale levitated cylinders. We predict it will be possible to cool the motion of these nano-objects to the quantum ground state [3] using high-performance optical micro-cavities [4], and even at modest temperatures we predict the observation of orientational quantum revivals [5].

Rotational optomechanics promises unparalleled, potentially quantum-enhanced rotation and torque sensitivity [2, 5] with micrometre spatial resolution in a compact package, as well as the potential to look for quantum signatures in the motion of mesoscopic objects [5].

[1] Kuhn, Kosloff, Stickler, Patolsky, Hornberger, Arndt & Millen, Optica 4, 356-360 (2017).

[2] Kuhn, Stickler, Kosloff, Patolsky, Hornberger, Arndt & Millen, Nature Communications 8, 1670 (2017).

[3] Stickler, Nimmrichter, Martinetz, Kuhn, Arndt & Hornberger, Physical Review A 94, 033818 (2016).

[4] Kuhn, Wachter, Wieser, Millen, Schneider, Schalko, Schmid, Trupke & Arndt, Applied Physics Letters 111, 253107 (2017).

[5] Stickler, Papendell, Kuhn, Millen, Arndt & Klaus Hornberger, arXiv:1803.01778