Coherent feedback in optomechanical systems in the sideband-unresolved regime

TL;DR

This paper proposes a coherent feedback scheme using passive optical components to enable groundstate cooling and entanglement in optomechanical systems operating in the sideband-unresolved regime, making such quantum control experimentally feasible.

Contribution

It introduces a novel feedback approach that mimics sideband-resolved dynamics in the unresolved regime, facilitating quantum state preparation with existing high-Q resonators.

Findings

Achieves groundstate cooling in the unresolved regime

Generates photon-phonon entanglement using passive feedback

Bridges the gap between unresolved and resolved sideband regimes

Abstract

Preparing macroscopic mechanical resonators close to their motional quantum groundstate and generating entanglement with light offers great opportunities in studying fundamental physics and in developing a new generation of quantum applications. Here we propose an experimentally interesting scheme, which is particularly well suited for systems in the sideband-unresolved regime, based on coherent feedback with linear, passive optical components to achieve groundstate cooling and photon-phonon entanglement generation with optomechanical devices. We find that, by introducing an additional passive element - either a narrow linewidth cavity or a mirror with a delay line - an optomechanical system in the deeply sideband-unresolved regime will exhibit dynamics similar to one that is sideband-resolved. With this new approach, the experimental realization of groundstate cooling and optomechanical entanglement is well within reach of current integrated state-of-the-art high-Q mechanical resonators.