Quantum illumination (QI) is a quantum sensing protocol mainly for target detection which uses entangled signal-idler photon pairs to enhance the detection efficiency of low-reflectivity objects immersed in thermal noisy environments. Especially, due to the naturally occurring background radiation, the photon emitted toward potential targets more appropriately lies in the microwave region. Here, we propose a hybrid quantum source based on cavity magnonics for microwave QI, where the medium that bridges the optical and the microwave modes is magnon, the quanta of spin wave. Within experimentally accessible parameters, significant microwave-optical quantum resources of interest can be generated, leading to orders of magnitude lower detecting error probability compared with the electro-optomechanical prototype quantum radar and any classical microwave radar with equal transmitted energy.
Multi-mode input-output model for cavity magnonics: phase-resolved control of level repulsion, level attraction, and nonreciprocal transmission
kwan-tek；IMT Atlantique, Lab-STICC, UMR CNRS 6285（IMT大西洋学院，Lab-STICC，CNRS联合研究实验室6285）；Quantum Technologies and Dark Matter Labs, Department of Physics, University of Western Australia（西澳大利亚大学物理系量子技术与暗物质实验室）
We present a proposal to produce bipartite and tripartite entanglement in a hybrid magnon-cavity QED system. Two macroscopic yttrium iron garnet (YIG) spheres are coupled to a single-mode microwave cavity via magnetic dipole interaction, while the cavity photons are generated via the two photon process induced by a pump field. Using the mean field theory, we show that the second order nonlinearity can result in strong bipartite entanglement between cavity photons and magnonic modes under two conditions, i.e., $δ_c δ_{m}=2g^2$ and $δ_c=-δ_{m}$. For the later one, we also show the possibility fo…
We show how to enhance the detection sensitivity of magnon Kerr nonlinearity (MKN) in cavity magnonics. The considered cavity-magnon system consists of a three-dimensional microwave cavity containing two yttrium iron garnet (YIG) spheres, where the two magnon modes (one has the MKN, while the other is linear) in YIG spheres are simultaneously coupled to microwave photons. To obtain the effective gain of the cavity mode, we feed two input fields into the cavity. By choosing appropriate parameters, the coherent perfect absorption of the two input fields occurs, and the cavity-magnon system can b…
We develop a theory for the magnon Kerr effect in a cavity magnonics system, consisting of magnons in a small yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere strongly coupled to cavity photons, and use it to study the bistability in this hybrid system. To have a complete picture of the bistability phenomenon, we analyze two different cases in driving the cavity magnonics system, i.e., directly pumping the YIG sphere and the cavity, respectively. In both cases, the magnon frequency shifts due to the Kerr effect exhibit a similar bistable behavior but the corresponding critical powers are different. Moreover, …
Floquet engineering can induce complex collective behaviour and interesting synthetic gauge-field in quantum systems through temporal modulation of system parameters by periodic drives. Using a Floquet drive on frequencies of the magnon modes, we realize a chiral state-transfer in a cavity-magnonic system. The time-reversal symmetry is broken in such a promising platform for coherent information processing. In particular, the photon mode is adiabatically eliminated in the large-detuning regime and the magnon modes under conditional longitudinal drives can be indirectly coupled to each other wi…
We investigate the parameter estimation in a magnon-cavity-magnon coupled system. PT symmetrical two magnons system can be formed in the gain magnetic materials by the adiabatic elimination of the cavity field mode. We show that the optimal estimation will not appear at the exceptional point due to that the quantum fluctuations are the strongest at the exceptional point. Moreover, we demonstrate that the measurements at the exceptional point tend to be optimal with the increase of prepared time. And the direct photon detection is the optimal measurement for the initial state in the vacuum inpu…
Chiral cavity-magnonic system for the unidirectional photon blockade
School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University（陕西师范大学物理与信息技术学院）；Xi’an Key Laboratory of Optical Information Manipulation and Augmentation（西安光学信息操纵与增强重点实验室）
When there is a certain amount of field inhomogeneity, the biased ferrimagnetic crystal will exhibit the higher-order magnetostatic (HMS) mode in addition to the uniform-precession Kittel mode. In cavity magnonics, we show both experimentally and theoretically the cross-Kerr-type interaction between the Kittel mode and HMS mode. When the Kittel mode is driven to generate a certain number of excitations, the HMS mode displays a corresponding frequency shift and vice versa. The cross-Kerr effect is caused by an exchange interaction between these two spin-wave modes. Utilizing the cross-Kerr effe…
Superradiant phase transition in cavity magnonics via Floquet engineering
School of Physics, Hangzhou Normal University（杭州师范大学物理学院）；Interdisciplinary Research Center of Quantum and Photoelectric Information, and Anhui Research Center of Semiconductor Industry Generic Technology, Chizhou University（池州大学量子与光电信息交叉研究中心及安徽省半导体产业通用技术研究中心）；School of Physics and Electronic Information, Yunnan Normal University（云南师范大学物理与电子信息学院）；Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Quantum Chips and Quantum Control（浙江省微纳量子芯片与量子控制重点实验室）
The main challenge in the recent demonstration of conventional magnon blockade is to increase the nonlinearity of the system especially in comparison with the dissipation channels. One can consider the Kerr nonlinearity through which magnon blockade in a cavity magnonic system is possible provided that the Kerr nonlinearity is much stronger than the cavity and magnonic mode dissipation rates. In the present contribution, we consider a PT-symmetric cavity magnonic system and study the effect of PT-symmetric phase on the magnon statistics and hence magnon blockade. We show that the PT-symmetric …
Multistability is an extraordinary nonlinear property of dynamical systems and can be explored to implement memory and switches. Here we experimentally realize the tristability in a three-mode cavity magnonic system with Kerr nonlinearity. The three stable states in the tristable region correspond to the stable solutions of the frequency shift of the cavity magnon polariton under specific driving conditions. We find that the system staying in which stable state depends on the history experienced by the system, and this state can be harnessed to store the history information. In our experiment,…
We reveal the cooperative effect of coherent and dissipative magnon-photon couplings in an open cavity magnonic system, which leads to nonreciprocity with a considerably large isolation ratio and flexible controllability. Furthermore, we discover unidirectional invisibility for microwave propagation, which appears at the zero-damping condition for hybrid magnon-photon modes. A simple model is developed to capture the generic physics of the interference between coherent and dissipative couplings, which accurately reproduces the observations over a broad range of parameters. This general scheme …
We study the parity-symmetry-breaking quantum phase transition (QPT) in a cavity magnonic system driven by a parametric field, where the magnons in a ferrimagnetic yttrium-iron-garnet sphere strongly couple to a microwave cavity. With appropriate parameters, this cavity magnonic system can exhibit a rich phase diagram, including the parity-symmetric phase, parity-symmetry-broken phase, and bistable phase. When increasing the drive strength beyond a critical threshold, the cavity magnonic system undergoes either a first- or second-order nonequilibrium QPT from the parity-symmetric phase with mi…
We propose a deterministic scheme for establishing hybrid Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement channel between a macroscopic mechanical oscillator and a magnon mode in a distant yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) sphere across about ten gigahertz of frequency difference. The system consists of a driven electromechanical cavity which is unidirectionally coupled to a distant electromagnonical cavity inside which a YIG sphere is placed. We find that far beyond the sideband-resolved regime in the electromechanical subsystem, stationary phonon-magnon EPR entanglement can be achieved. This is realized …
We propose to realize the pseudo-Hermiticity in a cavity magnonics system consisting of the Kittel modes in two small yttrium-iron-garnet spheres coupled to a microwave cavity mode. The effective gain of the cavity can be achieved using the coherent perfect absorption of the two input fields fed into the cavity. With certain constraints of the parameters, the Hamiltonian of the system has the pseudo-Hermiticity and its eigenvalues can be either all real or one real and other two constituting a complex-conjugate pair. By varying the coupling strengths between the two Kittel modes and the cavity…
Cavity-mediated magnon-magnon coupling can lead to a transfer of spin-wave excitations between two spatially separated magnetic samples. We enunciate how the application of a two-photon parametric drive to the cavity can lead to stark amplification in this transfer efficiency. The recurrent multiphoton absorption by the cavity opens up an infinite ladder of accessible energy levels, which can induce higher-order transitions within the magnon Fock space. This is reflected in a heightened spin-current response from one of the magnetic samples when the neighboring sample is coherently pumped. The…
Cavity Magnonics is an emerging field that studies the strong coupling between cavity photons and collective spin excitations such as magnons. This rapidly developing field connects some of the most exciting branches of modern physics, such as quantum information and quantum optics, with one of the oldest science on the earth, the magnetism. The past few years have seen a steady stream of exciting experiments that demonstrate novel magnon-based transducers and memories. Most of such cavity magnonic devices rely on coherent coupling that stems from direct dipole-dipole interaction. Recently, a …
By engineering an anti-parity-time (anti-PT) symmetric cavity magnonics system with precise eigenspace controllability, we observe two different singularities in the same system. One type of singularity, the exceptional point (EP), is produced by tuning the magnon damping. Between two EPs, the maximal coherent superposition of photon and magnon states is robustly sustained by the preserved anti-PT symmetry. The other type of singularity, arising from the dissipative coupling of two anti-resonances, is an unconventional bound state in the continuum (BIC). At the settings of BICs, the coupled sy…
We propose and numerically evaluate a protocol to generate an arbitrary quantum state of the magnetization in a magnet. The protocol involves repeatedly exciting a frequency-tunable superconducting transmon and transferring the excitations to the magnet via a microwave cavity. To avoid decay, the protocol must be much shorter than magnon lifetime. Speeding up the protocol by simply shortening the pulses leads to non-resonant leakage of excitations to higher levels of the transmon accompanied by higher decoherence. We discuss how to correct for such leakages by applying counter pulses to de-exc…
Engineered quantum systems enabling novel capabilities for communication, computation, and sensing have blossomed in the last decade. Architectures benefiting from combining distinct and complementary physical quantum systems have emerged as promising platforms for developing quantum technologies. A new class of hybrid quantum systems based on collective spin excitations in ferromagnetic materials has led to the diverse set of experimental platforms which are outlined in this review article. The coherent interaction between microwave cavity modes and collective spin-wave modes is presented as …
We theoretically explore nonlinearities of ferromagnets in microwave cavities in the classical and quantum regimes, and assess the resources for quantum information, i.e. fluctuation squeezing and bipartite entanglement. The (semi-)classical analysis of the anharmonic oscillator (Duffing) model for the Kittel mode when including all other magnon modes, reveals chaotic and limit-cycle phases that do not survive in quantum calculations. However, magnons with nonzero wavenumbers that are driven by the Suhl instability of the Kittel mode, form a genuine limit cycle. We subsequently compute bounds …
A method for determining the internal DC magnetic field inside a superconducting cavity is presented. The method relies on the relationship between magnetic field and frequency of the Kittel mode of a ferrimagnetic sphere, hybridised in the dispersive regime of the superconducting cavity. Results were used to experimentally determine the level of screening a superconducting Nb cavity provides as it changes from perfect diamagnetism to no screening. Two cavity geometries were tested, a cylinder and single post re-entrant cavity. Both demonstrated a consistent value of field that enters the cavi…
The techniques of microwave quantum optics are applied to collective spin excitations in a macroscopic sphere of ferromagnetic insulator. We demonstrate, in the single-magnon limit, strong coupling between a magnetostatic mode in the sphere and a microwave cavity mode. Moreover, we introduce a superconducting qubit in the cavity and couple the qubit with the magnon excitation via the virtual photon excitation. We observe the magnon-vacuum-induced Rabi splitting. The hybrid quantum system enables generation and characterization of non-classical quantum states of magnons.
Cavity magnonics and bound states in the continuum with Bragg and anti-Bragg mirrors
City University of Hong Kong（香港城市大学）；Tianjin University（天津大学）；Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）；Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, CAS（中国科学院上海微系统与信息技术研究所）
A scheme of an ultra-sensitive magnetometer in the cavity quantum electromagnonics where the intracavity microwave mode coupled to a magnonic mode via magnetic dipole interaction is proposed. It is shown that by driving both magnonic and microwave modes with external classical fields and controlling the system parameters, one can reduce the added noise of magnetic field measurement below the standard quantum limit (SQL). Surprisingly, we show that beyond the rotating wave approximation (RWA), not only the added noise can be suppressed, but also the output cavity response to the input signal ca…
Quantum illumination is a quantum-optical sensing technique in which an entangled source is exploited to improve the detection of a low-reflectivity object that is immersed in a bright thermal background. Entangled sources between microwave and optical fields can be exploited to improve detection in microwave quantum illumination technique. We proposed a scheme to enhance the entanglement between the output fields of microwave and optical cavity by introducing optical parametric amplifier medium in cavity optomechanical system. We show that improving signal-to-noise ratio and decreasing error …
Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Quantum Chips and Quantum Control, and School of Physics, Zhejiang University（浙江大学微纳量子芯片与量子控制浙江省重点实验室和物理学院）；Department of Physics, ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院物理系）
