Bistability and Displacement Fluctuations in a Quantum Nano-mechanical Oscillator

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum nano-mechanical oscillators, revealing that energy and displacement fluctuations peak at bistability points, extending classical fluctuation results into the quantum regime.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of fluctuation spectra in quantum nano-mechanical oscillators near bistability, especially in the Frank-Condon regime, highlighting quantum effects.

Findings

Fluctuation spectra show maxima at bistability thresholds.

Quantum regime behavior parallels classical fluctuation features.

Displacement and energy fluctuations are significantly affected by electro-mechanical coupling.

Abstract

Remarkable features have been predicted for the mechanical fluctuations at the bistability transition of a classical oscillator coupled capacitively to a quantum dot [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 206802 (2015)]. These results have been obtained in the regime $\omega$0 $\ll$ kBT $\ll$ $\Gamma$, where $\omega$0, T , and $\Gamma$ are the mechanical resonating frequency, the temperature, and the tunneling rate, respectively. A similar behavior could be expected in the quantum regime of $\Gamma$ $\ll$ kBT $\ll$ $\omega$0. We thus calculate the energy and displacement fluctuation spectra and study their behavior as a function of the electro-mechanical coupling constant when the system enters the Frank-Condon regime. We find that, in analogy with the classical case, the energy fluctuation spectrum and the displacement spectrum widths show a maximum for values of the coupling constant at which a mechanical bistability establishes.