Charged oscillator quantum state generation with Rydberg atoms

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to generate non-classical quantum states in a charged mechanical oscillator by coupling it to Rydberg atoms, enabling dissipative state engineering with potential applications in sensing and fundamental physics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme for creating non-classical states in a charged oscillator via Rydberg atom coupling and two-phonon resonance, with analysis of robustness and feasibility.

Findings

The scheme can produce squeezed and non-classical states.

The generated states are robust against thermal noise.

Achieving required coupling strengths remains technologically challenging.

Abstract

We explore the possibility of engineering quantum states of a charged mechanical oscillator by coupling it to a stream of atoms in superpositions of high-lying Rydberg states. Our scheme relies on the driving of a two-phonon resonance within the oscillator by coupling it to an atomic two-photon transition. This approach effectuates a controllable open system dynamics on the oscillator that permits the dissipative creation of squeezed and other non-classical states which are central to applications such as sensing and metrology or for studies of fundamental questions concerning the boundary between classical and quantum mechanical descriptions of macroscopic objects. We show that these features are robust to thermal noise arising from a coupling of the oscillator with the environment. Finally, we assess the feasibility of the scheme finding that the required coupling strengths are challenging to achieve with current state-of-the-art technology.