Optical drive of macroscopic mechanical motion by a single two-level system

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a quantum emitter coupled to a mechanical oscillator can serve as an efficient, light-controlled source of mechanical power and enable non-destructive quantum bit measurements, advancing quantum hybrid systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for using quantum emitters to generate mechanical motion via classical phonon interference, with applications in quantum measurement.

Findings

Quantum emitters can efficiently drive mechanical oscillators using classical interference.

The mechanism enables low-background, non-destructive quantum bit measurements.

The approach opens new avenues for quantum information processing with hybrid systems.

Abstract

A quantum emitter coupled to a nano-mechanical oscillator is a hybrid system where a macroscopic degree of freedom is coupled to a purely quantum system. Recent progress in nanotechnology has led to the realization of such devices by embedding single artificial atoms like quantum dots or superconducting qubits into vibrating wires or membranes, opening up new perspectives for quantum information technologies and for the exploration of the quantum-classical boundary. In this letter, we show that the quantum emitter can be turned into a strikingly efficient light-controlled source of mechanical power, by exploiting constructive interferences of classical phonon fields in the mechanical oscillator. We show that this mechanism can be used as a novel strategy to carry out low-background non-destructive single-shot measurement of an optically active quantum bit state.