Generation of mechanical cat-like states via optomagnomechanics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel optomagnomechanical protocol to generate mechanical cat-like superposition states by combining microwave-driven squeezing and photon subtraction via optical cavity interactions.

Contribution

It presents a new method for creating macroscopic quantum superpositions using combined opto- and magnomechanical systems with photon subtraction techniques.

Findings

Successfully prepares mechanical cat-like states via photon subtraction.

Demonstrates a feasible protocol combining microwave and optical controls.

Provides potential applications in quantum state testing and macroscopic quantum studies.

Abstract

We propose an optomagnomechanical approach for preparing a cat-like superposition state of mechanical motion. Our protocol consists of two steps and is based on the magnomechanical system where the magnetostrictively induced displacement further couples to an optical cavity mode via radiation pressure. We first prepare a squeezed mechanical state by driving the magnomechanical system with two microwave pulses. We then switch off the microwave drives and send a weak red-detuned optical pulse to the optical cavity to weakly activate the optomechanical anti-Stokes scattering. We show that $k$ phonons can be subtracted from the prepared squeezed thermal state, conditioned on the detection of $k$ anti-Stokes photons from the cavity output field, which prepares the mechanical motion in a cat-like state. The work provides a new avenue for preparing mechanical superposition states by combining opto- and magnomechanics and may find applications in the study of macroscopic quantum states and the test of collapse theories.