Proposal for an Optomechanical Microwave Sensor at the Subphoton Level

TL;DR

This paper proposes a multimode optomechanical transducer capable of detecting microwave signals below the single-photon level by transferring signals to the optical domain, addressing measurement challenges at extremely low energies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multimode optomechanical transducer design that enables sub-photon microwave detection through adiabatic transfer to optical frequencies.

Findings

Potential to detect signals below the single-photon level

Analysis of quantum and thermal noise impacts

Advancement in low-energy microwave measurement techniques

Abstract

Because of their low energy content, microwave signals at the single-photon level are extremely challenging to measure. Guided by recent progress in single-photon optomechanics and hybrid optomechanical systems, we propose a multimode optomechanical transducer that can detect intensities significantly below the single-photon level via adiabatic transfer of the microwave signal to the optical frequency domain where the measurement is then performed. The influence of intrinsic quantum and thermal fluctuations is also discussed.