Nonclassical Correlations between Photons and Phonons of Center-of-Mass Motion of a Mechanical Oscillator.

We demonstrate nonclassical correlations between phonons and photons created using opto-mechanical spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a system based on a soft-clamped ultracoherent membrane oscillator inside of a Fabry-Pérot optical resonator. Non-Gaussian quantum features are demonstrated for the center-of-mass motion of a submillimeter nanogram-scale mechanical oscillator. We show that phonons stored in the mechanical oscillator, when subsequently read out, display strong signs of quantum coherence, which we demonstrate by single-photon counting enabled by our state-of-the-art optical filtering system.

Squeezed light from an oscillator measured at the rate of oscillation.

Sufficiently fast continuous measurements of the position of an oscillator approach measurements projective on position eigenstates. We evidence the transition into the projective regime for a spin oscillator within an ensemble of 2 × 10 room-temperature atoms by observing correlations between the quadratures of the meter light field. These correlations squeeze the fluctuations of one light quadrature below the vacuum level.

Acoustic frequency atomic spin oscillator in the quantum regime.

Quantum noise reduction and entanglement-enhanced sensing in the acoustic frequency range is an outstanding challenge relevant for a number of applications including magnetometry and broadband noise reduction in gravitational wave detectors. Here we experimentally demonstrate quantum behavior of a macroscopic atomic spin oscillator in the acoustic frequency range. Quantum back-action of the spin measurement, ponderomotive squeezing of light, and virtual spring softening are observed at oscillation frequencies down to the sub-kHz range.

Entanglement-Enhanced Magnetic Induction Tomography.

Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is a sensing protocol exploring conductive objects via their response to radio-frequency magnetic fields. MIT is used in nondestructive testing ranging from geophysics to medical applications. Atomic magnetometers, employed as MIT sensors, allow for significant improvement of the MIT sensitivity and for exploring its quantum limits.

Phononically shielded photonic-crystal mirror membranes for cavity quantum optomechanics.

We present a highly reflective, sub-wavelength-thick membrane resonator featuring high mechanical quality factor and discuss its applicability for cavity optomechanics. The 88.5 nm thin stoichiometric silicon-nitride membrane, designed and fabricated to combine 2D-photonic and phononic crystal patterns, reaches reflectivities up to 99.