Interference Between Electromagnetic and Mechanical Waves

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the controlled interference between electromagnetic and mechanical waves in an ion-trap system, enabling the development of hybrid quantum devices like transistors and filters for wave packets.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to achieve interference between different physical wave types using ion-trap platforms, expanding quantum control capabilities.

Findings

Interference effects depend on phase relationships between mechanical and electromagnetic waves.

Precise modulation of Rabi frequency enables constructive or destructive interference.

Potential for designing hybrid quantum devices like wave transistors and filters.

Abstract

Classically, wave interference is a phenomenon that can be explained by considering only the waves themselves, that is, without the need to consider the apparatus that monitors or observes them. Thus, in classical theories, interference can only occur between waves of the same nature. In quantum theory, the observed results require a description of the system and its measuring apparatus, which allows us to rethink the explanation of various natural phenomena. In this paper, we consider the ion-trap platform to study the interference of waves with different physical natures, specifically the electromagnetic and mechanical. At first, we drive two lasers onto a single-trapped ion to produce Jaynes-Cummings and Carrier interactions, where we verify that, depending on the phase relationship between the coherent state of the vibrational (mechanical) mode and the Carrier pulse (electromagnetic wave), the interactions enhance or cancel out population transfer to the electronic state of the ion, that works out as our measuring apparatus for those waves. Extending our result to an ion chain, we verify that a precise modulation of the Carrier Rabi frequency and phase (electromagnetic pulse) according to the amplitude of the incoming mechanical coherent state in the ion chain enables creating either constructive or destructive interference with propagating pulses, in which the electronic state of the driven ion is, respectively, populated more and faster, or transparent to both pulse waves, when the information flux behaves as if no external fields are applied. Finally, this new type of controlled interference between waves of different natures allows us to propose new hybrid quantum devices, such as transistors or filters of wave packets, where photonic (phononic) pulses control the passage of phononic (photonic) waves.