Mechanical squeezing via fast continuous measurement

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantum squeezing of an oscillator can be achieved through continuous measurement, even outside traditional regimes, enabling non-classical states at room temperature for quantum sensing and macroscopicity tests.

Contribution

It provides analytical expressions for the conditioned state and shows squeezing is possible beyond backaction and coherent oscillation regimes, relaxing experimental constraints.

Findings

Quantum squeezing achievable outside backaction dominated regime

Analytical expressions for conditioned oscillator states derived

Potential for room-temperature quantum sensing and macroscopicity tests

Abstract

We revisit quantum state preparation of an oscillator by continuous linear position measurement. Quite general analytical expressions are derived for the conditioned state of the oscillator. Remarkably, we predict that quantum squeezing is possible outside of both the backaction dominated and quantum coherent oscillation regimes, relaxing experimental requirements even compared to ground-state cooling. This provides a new way to generate non-classical states of macroscopic mechanical oscillators, and opens the door to quantum sensing and tests of quantum macroscopicity at room temperature.