Tunable phonon blockade in weakly nonlinear coupled mechanical resonators via Coulomb interaction

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates tunable phonon blockade in weakly nonlinear coupled mechanical resonators via Coulomb interaction, highlighting interference effects and the benefits of dual driving for quantum control and measurement.

Contribution

It introduces a method to achieve and tune phonon blockade in coupled resonators using Coulomb interaction and dual driving, with implications for quantum control and measurement.

Findings

Phonon blockade can be achieved through destructive quantum interference.

Driving both resonators enhances temperature sensitivity and tunability.

Photon correlations can indirectly measure phonon correlations in optomechanical systems.

Abstract

Realizing quantum mechanical behavior in micro- and nanomechanical resonators has attracted continuous research effort. One of the ways for observing quantum nature of mechanical objects is via the mechanism of phonon blockade. Here, we show that phonon blockade could be achieved in a system of two weakly nonlinear mechanical resonators coupled by a Coulomb interaction. The optimal blockade arises as a result of the destructive quantum interference between paths leading to two-phonon excitation. It is observed that, in comparison to a single drive applied on one mechanical resonator, driving both the resonators can be beneficial in many aspects; such as, in terms of the temperature sensitivity of phonon blockade and also with regard to the tunability, by controlling the amplitude and the phase of the second drive externally. We also show that via a radiation pressure induced coupling in an optomechanical cavity, phonon correlations can be measured indirectly in terms of photon correlations of the cavity mode.