Optomechanical squeezing with strong harmonic mechanical driving.

In this paper, we propose an optomechanical scheme for generating mechanical squeezing over the 3 dB limit, with the mechanical mirror being driven by a strong and linear harmonic force. In contrast to parametric mechanical driving, the linearly driven force shakes the mechanical mirror periodically oscillating at twice the mechanical eigenfrequency with large amplitude, where the mechanical mirror can be dissipatively stabilized by the engineered cavity reservoir to a dynamical squeezed steady state with a maximum degree of squeezing over 8 dB. The mechanical squeezing of more than 3 dB can be achieved even for a mechanical thermal temperature larger than 100 mK.

Improving macroscopic entanglement with nonlocal mechanical squeezing.

We report an efficient mechanism to generate mechanical entanglement in a two-cascaded cavity optomechanical system with optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) inside the two coupled cavities. We use the especially tuned OPAs to squeeze the hybrid mode composed of two mechanical modes, leading to strong macroscopic entanglement between the two movable mirrors. The squeezing parameter as well as the effective mechanical damping are both modulated by the OPA gains.

Optical precursor with four-wave mixing and storage based on a cold-atom ensemble.

We observed optical precursors in four-wave mixing based on a cold-atom gas. Optical precursors appear at the edges of pulses of the generated optical field, and propagate through the atomic medium without absorption. Theoretical analysis suggests that these precursors correspond to high-frequency components of the signal pulse, which means the atoms cannot respond quickly to rapid changes in the electromagnetic field.

Quantum storage of orbital angular momentum entanglement in an atomic ensemble.

Constructing a quantum memory for a photonic entanglement is vital for realizing quantum communication and network. Because of the inherent infinite dimension of orbital angular momentum (OAM), the photon's OAM has the potential for encoding a photon in a high-dimensional space, enabling the realization of high channel capacity communication. Photons entangled in orthogonal polarizations or optical paths had been stored in a different system, but there have been no reports on the storage of a photon pair entangled in OAM space.

Orbital angular momentum light frequency conversion and interference with quasi-phase matching crystals.

Light with helical phase structures, carrying quantized orbital angular momentum (OAM), has many applications in both classical and quantum optics, such as high-capacity optical communications and quantum information processing. Frequency conversion is a basic technique to expand the frequency range of the fundamental light. The frequency conversion of OAM-carrying light gives rise to new physics and applications such as up-conversion detection of images and generation of high dimensional OAM entanglements.

Generation of light with controllable spatial patterns via the sum frequency in quasi-phase matching crystals.

Light beams with extraordinary spatial structures, such as the Airy beam (AB), the Bessel-Gaussian beam (BGB) and the Laguerre-Gaussian beam (LGB), are widely studied and applied in many optical scenarios. We report on preparation of light beams with controllable spatial structures through sum frequency generation (SFG) using two Gaussian pump beams in a quasi-phase matching (QPM) crystal. The spatial structures, including multi-ring-like BGB, donut-like LGB, and super-Gaussian-like beams, can be controlled periodically via crystal phase mismatching by tuning the pump frequency or crystal temperature.

Experimental verification of fault tolerant quantum key distribution protocol.

We have investigated fault tolerant quantum key distribution experimentally, using four polarization encoding two-qubit states generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion. Collective noises on polarization and phase were simulated by passing the states through a half wave plate and a quarter wave pate. Error rate was calculated by measuring the two-qubit states in three basis.