Preparing a mechanical oscillator in non-Gaussian quantum states

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel protocol for transferring non-Gaussian quantum states from light to a mechanical oscillator, using a new path-integral approach to model open quantum dynamics and measurement processes, with potential applications in gravitational-wave detection and optomechanics.

Contribution

It presents a new method for coherently transferring non-Gaussian states to mechanical oscillators and develops a path-integral-based framework for analyzing such open quantum systems.

Findings

Derived a relation between optical and mechanical quantum states for general linear dynamics

Demonstrated experimental feasibility for gravitational-wave detectors and optomechanical devices

Developed a new theoretical approach beyond stochastic master equations

Abstract

We propose a protocol for coherently transferring non-Gaussian quantum states from optical field to a mechanical oscillator. The open quantum dynamics and continuous-measurement process, which can not be treated by the stochastic-master-equation formalism, are studied by a new path-integral-based approach. We obtain an elegant relation between the quantum state of the mechanical oscillator and that of the optical field, which is valid for general linear quantum dynamics. We demonstrate the experimental feasibility of such protocol by considering the cases of both large-scale gravitational-wave detectors and small-scale cavity-assisted optomechanical devices.