Thermally-induced qubit coherence in quantum electromechanics

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum coherence can spontaneously emerge in a hybrid qubit-oscillator system due to thermal interactions, revealing new mechanisms for coherence generation relevant to quantum technology.

Contribution

It demonstrates the creation of quantum coherence solely through system interactions in a thermal environment, without external coherent driving.

Findings

Quantum coherence arises from thermal interactions in a hybrid system.

Coherence persists despite damping effects.

Potential for new quantum technology applications.

Abstract

Quantum coherence, the ability of a quantum system to be in a superposition of orthogonal quantum states, is a distinct feature of the quantum mechanics, thus marking a deviation from classical physics. Coherence finds its applications in quantum sensing and metrology, quantum thermodynamics and computation. A particularly interesting is the possibility to observe coherence arising in counter-intuitive way from thermal energy that is without implementation of intricate protocols involving coherent driving sequences. In this manuscript, we investigate quantum coherence emerging in a hybrid system composed of a two-level system (qubit) and a thermal quantum harmonic oscillator (a material mechanical oscillator), inspired by recent experimental progress in fabrication of such systems. We show that quantum coherence is created in such a composite system solely from the interaction of the parts and persists under relevant damping. Implementation of such scheme will demonstrate previously unobserved mechanisms of coherence generation and can be beneficial for hybrid quantum technologies with mechanical oscillators and qubits.