Universal Quantum Entanglement between an Oscillator and Continuous Fields

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantum entanglement between a mechanical oscillator and outgoing continuous fields is universally present, even under high thermal noise, and identifies the optimal optical mode for entanglement useful in quantum information processing.

Contribution

It proves the universal presence of entanglement in optomechanical systems under realistic conditions and derives the optimal optical mode for entanglement.

Findings

Entanglement persists despite high thermal noise.

Entanglement can survive multiple oscillation cycles.

Identifies the maximally entangled optical mode.

Abstract

Quantum entanglement has been actively sought for in optomechanical and electromechanical systems. The simplest such system is a mechanical oscillator interacting with a coherent beam, while the oscillator also suffers from thermal decoherence. For this system, we show that quantum entanglement is always present between the oscillator and continuous outgoing fields -- even when the environmental temperature is high and the oscillator is highly classical. Such universal entanglement is also shown to be able to survive more than one oscillation cycle if characteristic frequency of the optomechanical interaction is larger than that of the thermal noise. Furthermore, we derive the effective optical mode that is maximally entangled with the oscillator, which will be useful for future quantum computing and encoding information into mechanical degrees of freedom.