We investigate three types of amplification processes for light fields coupling to an atom near the end of a one-dimensional semi-infinite waveguide. We consider two setups where a drive creates population inversion in the bare or dressed basis of a three-level atom and one setup where the amplification is due to higher-order processes in a driven two-level atom. In all cases, the end of the waveguide acts as a mirror for the light. We find that this enhances the amplification in two ways compared to the same setups in an open waveguide. Firstly, the mirror forces all output from the atom to travel in one direction instead of being split up into two output channels. Secondly, interference due to the mirror enables tuning of the ratio of relaxation rates for different transitions in the atom to increase population inversion. We quantify the enhancement in amplification due to these factors and show that it can be demonstrated for standard parameters in experiments with superconducting quantum circuits.
An interferometric arrangement is proposed in which the technique of weak value amplification is implemented in order to enlarge the effect of a single photon on the quadratures of a movable mirror of an optical cavity. The photon interacts weakly with the mirror via radiation pressure and is post-selected in the dark port of the interferometer. The real and imaginary parts of weak values of angular momentum type photonic operators produce an amplification of the mirror quadratures, which is large as compared to the scenario in which all photons are taken into consideration, i.e. when no post-…
We present a scheme for achieving amplification of the displacement of the mirror in optomechanical cavity using single-photon postselection where the mirror is initially prepared in squeezed coherent state. The amplification depends on the enhanced fluctuations of the squeezed coherent state, and it is is caused by the noncommutativity of quantum mechanics relying on the squeezed coherent state, which can not be explained by the standard weak measurement [1,25].
The Shannon capacity of a point-to-point link with an optimised configuration of optical amplifiers is compared with general detection strategies permitted by quantum mechanics. Results suggest that the primary application area of receivers based on such strategies may be unamplified short-distance links or free-space optical communication
Most studies for postselected weak measurement in optomechanical system focus on using a single photon as a measured system. However, we find that using weak coherent light instead of a single photon can also amplify the mirror's position displacement of one photon. In the WVA regime (Weak Value Amplification regime), the weak value of one photon can lie outside the eigenvalue spectrum, proportional to the difference of the mirror's position displacement between the successful and failed postselection and its successful postselection probability is dependent of the mean photon number of the co…
We address an experimental scheme to analyze the optical bistability and the entanglement of two movable mirrors coupled to a two-mode laser inside a doubly resonant cavity. With this aim we investigate the master equations of the atom-cavity subsystem in conjunction with the quantum Langevin equations that describe the interaction of the mirror cavity. The parametric amplification-type coupling induced by the two-photon coherence on the optical bistability of the intracavity mean photon numbers is found and investigated. Under this condition, the optical intensities exhibit bistability for al…
An optical cavity consisting of optically trapped mirrors makes a resonant bar that can be stiffer than diamond. A limitation of the stiffness arises in the length of the optical bar as a consequence of the finite light speed. High laser power and light mass mirrors are essential for realization of a long and stiff optical bar that can be useful for example in the gravitational-wave detector aiming at the observation of a signal from neutron-star collisions, supernovae, etc. In this letter, we introduce a parametric signal amplification scheme that realizes the long and stiff optical bar witho…
A modified-weak-value-amplification(MWVA) technique of measuring the mirror's velocity based on the Vernier-effect has been proposed. We have demonstrated with sensitivity-enhanced and the higher signal-to-noise ratio(${\rm SNR}$) by using two cascaded Michelson interferometers. These two interferometers are composed of similar optical structures. One interferometer with a fixed mirror acts as a fixed part of the Vernier-scale, while the other with a moving mirror acts as a sliding part of the Vernier-scale for velocity sensing. The envelope of the cascaded interferometers shifts much more tha…
The idea of signal amplification is ubiquitous in the control of physical systems, and the ultimate performance limit of amplifiers is set by quantum physics. Increasing the amplitude of an unknown quantum optical field, or more generally any harmonic oscillator state, must introduce noise. This linear amplification noise prevents the perfect copying of the quantum state, enforces quantum limits on communications and metrology, and is the physical mechanism that prevents the increase of entanglement via local operations. It is known that non-deterministic versions of ideal cloning and local en…
High precision interferometers are the building blocks of precision metrology and the ultimate interferometric sensitivity is limited by the quantum noise. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a compact quantum interferometer involving two optical parametric amplifiers and the squeezed states generated within the interferometer are directly used for the phase-sensing quantum state. By both squeezing shot noise and amplifying phase-sensing intensity the sensitivity improvement of $4.86\pm 0.24$ dB beyond the standard quantum limit is deterministically realized and a minimum detectable…
Optical interferometry is by far the most sensitive displacement measurement technique available, with sensitivities at the 10^-20 m/rootHz level in the large-scale gravitational-wave interferometers currently in operation. Second generation interferometers will experience a 10-fold improvement in sensitivity and be mainly limited by quantum noise, close to the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL), once considered as the ultimate displacement sensitivity achievable by interferometry. In this Letter, we experimentally demonstrate one of the techniques envisioned to go beyond the SQL: amplification of a…
We discuss an experimental scheme to create a low-dimensional gas of ultracold atoms, based on inelastic bouncing on an evanescent-wave mirror. Close to the turning point of the mirror, the atoms are transferred into an optical dipole trap. This scheme can compress the phase-space density and can ultimately yield an optically-driven atom laser. An important issue is the suppression of photon scattering due to ``cross-talk'' between the mirror potential and the trapping potential. We propose that for alkali atoms the photon scattering rate can be suppressed by several orders of magnitude if the…
We study the quantum limits in an optomechanical sensor based on a detuned high-finesse cavity with a movable mirror. We show that the radiation pressure exerted on the mirror by the light in the detuned cavity induces a modification of the mirror dynamics and makes the mirror motion sensitive to the signal. This leads to an amplification of the signal by the mirror dynamics, and to an improvement of the sensor sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit, up to an ultimate quantum limit only related to the mechanical dissipation of the mirror. This improvement is somewhat similar to the one …
We consider an optomechanical cavity with a movable end-mirror as a quantum mechanical oscillator (MO) containing an interacting cigar-shaped Bose-Eisenstein condensate (BEC). It is assumed that both the MO and the BEC interact with the radiation pressure of the cavity field in the red-detuned and weak coupling regimes while the two-body atomic collisions frequency of the BEC and the mechanical spring coefficient of the MO are coherently modulated. By analyzing the scattering matrix we find that a frequency-dependent squeezing is induced to the three subsystems only due to the coherent modulat…
The investigation of the ultimate limits imposed by quantum mechanics on amplification represents an important topic both on a fundamental level and from the perspective of potential applications. We propose here a novel setup for an optomechanical amplifier, constituted by a mechanical resonator dispersively coupled to an optomechanical cavity asymmetrically driven around both mechanical sidebands. We show that, on general grounds, the present amplifier operates in a novel regime-- which we here call phase-mixing amplification. At the same time, for a suitable choice of parameters, the amplif…
The low-noise amplification of weak microwave signals is crucial for countless protocols in quantum information processing. Quantum mechanics sets an ultimate lower limit of half a photon to the added input noise for phase-preserving amplification of narrowband signals, also known as the standard quantum limit (SQL). This limit, which is equivalent to a maximum quantum efficiency of $0.5$, can be overcome by employing nondegenerate parametric amplification of broadband signals. We show that, in principle, a maximum quantum efficiency of 1 can be reached. Experimentally, we find a quantum effic…
We establish the ultimate quantum limits to the amplification of an unknown coherent state, both in the deterministic and probabilistic case, investigating the realistic scenario where the expected photon number is finite. In addition, we provide the benchmark that experimental realizations have to surpass in order to beat all classical amplification strategies and to demonstrate genuine quantum amplification. Our result guarantees that a successful demonstration is in principle possible for every finite value of the expected photon number.
We report amplification of electromagnetic waves by a single artificial atom in open 1D space. Our three-level artificial atom -- a superconducting quantum circuit -- coupled to a transmission line presents an analog of a natural atom in open space. The system is the most fundamental quantum amplifier whose gain is limited by a spontaneous emission mechanism. The noise performance is determined by the quantum noise revealed in the spectrum of spontaneous emission, also characterized in our experiments.
Nature sets fundamental limits regarding how accurate the amplification of analog signals may be. For instance, a linear amplifier unavoidably adds some noise which amounts to half a photon at best. While for most applications much higher noise levels are acceptable, the readout of microwave quantum systems, such as spin or superconducting qubits, requires noise as close as possible to this ultimate limit. To date, it is approached only by parametric amplifiers exploiting non-linearities in superconducting circuits and driven by a strong microwave pump tone. However, this microwave drive makes…
Quantum parameter estimation, the ability to precisely obtain a classical value in a quantum system, is very important to many key quantum technologies. Many of these technologies rely on an optical probe, either coherent or squeezed states to make a precise measurement of a parameter ultimately limited by quantum mechanics. We use this technique to theoretically model, simulate and validate by experiment the measurement and precise estimation of the position of a cavity mirror. In non-resonant systems, the achieved estimation enhancement from quantum smoothing over optimal filtering has not e…
The sensitivity in interferometric measurements such as gravitational-wave detectors is ultimately limited by quantum noise of light. We discuss the use of feedback mechanisms to reduce the quantum effects of radiation pressure. Recent experiments have shown that it is possible to reduce the thermal motion of a mirror by cold damping. The mirror motion is measured with an optomechanical sensor based on a high-finesse cavity, and reduced by a feedback loop. We show that this technique can be extended to lock the mirror at the quantum level. In gravitational-waves interferometers with Fabry-Pero…
Each natural mode of the electromagnetic field within a parabolic mirror exhibits spatial localization and polarization properties that can be exploited for the quantum control of its interaction with atomic systems. The region of localization is not restricted to the focus of the mirror leading to a selective response of atomic systems trapped on its vicinity. We report calculations of the spontaneous emission rates for an atom trapped inside the mirror accounting for all atomic polarizations and diverse trapping regions. It is shown that electric dipole transitions can be enhanced near the f…
Efficient coupling of light to single atomic systems has gained considerable attention over the past decades. This development is driven by the continuous growth of quantum technologies. The efficient coupling of light and matter is an enabling technology for quantum information processing and quantum communication. And indeed, in recent years much progress has been made in this direction. But applications aside, the interaction of photons and atoms is a fundamental physics problem. There are various possibilities for making this interaction more efficient, among them the apparently 'natural' …
Cooperative control and geometric amplification in dissipative quantum systems
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）；Università di Parma（帕尔马大学）；INFN, Sezione di Milano Bicocca, Gruppo Collegato di Parma（意大利国家核物理研究所，米兰比科卡分部，帕尔马协作组）；Laboratoire Collisions Agrégats Réactivité, IRSAMC, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS（碰撞与聚集反应实验室，IRSAMC，图卢兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心，图卢兹第三大学）
Nonreciprocal transmission of optical or microwave signals is indispensable in various applications involving sensitive measurements. In this paper, we study optomechanically induced directional amplification and isolation in a generic setup including two cavities and two mechanical oscillators by exclusively using blue-sideband drive tones. The input and output ports defined by the two cavity modes are coupled through coherent and dissipative paths mediated by the two mechanical resonators, respectively. By choosing appropriate transfer phases and strengths of the driving fields, either a dir…
Pendulums have long been used as force sensors due to their ultimately low dissipation (high-quality factor) characteristic. They are widely used in the measurement of the gravitational constant, detection of gravitational waves, and determination of ultralight dark matter. Furthermore, it is expected that the quantum nature of gravity will be demonstrated by performing quantum control for macroscopic pendulums. Recently, we have demonstrated that quantum entanglement between two pendulums can be generated using an optical spring [D. Miki, N. Matsumoto, A. Matsumura, T. Shichijo, Y. Sugiyama, …
The derivation of a quantum Markovian model for an opto-mechanical system consisting of a quantum mechanical mirror interacting with quantum optical input fields via radiation pressure is difficult problem which ultimately involves the scattering process of quantum stochastic calculus. We show that while the scattering process may be approximated in a singular limit by regular processes using different schemes, however the limit model is highly sensitive to how the approximation scheme is interpreted mathematically. We find two main types of stochastic limits of regular models, and illustrate …
Photodetection plays a key role in basic science and technology, with exquisite performance having been achieved down to the single photon level. Further improvements in photodetectors would open new possibilities across a broad range of scientific disciplines, and enable new types of applications. However, it is still unclear what is possible in terms of ultimate performance, and what properties are needed for a photodetector to achieve such performance. Here, we present a general modeling framework for photodetectors whereby the photon field, the absorption process, and the amplification pro…
