RESUMEN
Cooling down nanomechanical force probes is a generic strategy to enhance their sensitivities through the concomitant reduction of their thermal noise and mechanical damping rates. However, heat conduction becomes less efficient at low temperatures, which renders difficult to ensure and verify their proper thermalization. Here we implement optomechanical readout techniques operating in the photon counting regime to probe the dynamics of suspended silicon carbide nanowires in a dilution refrigerator. Readout of their vibrations is realized with sub-picowatt optical powers, in a situation where less than one photon is collected per oscillation period. We demonstrate their thermalization down to 32 ± 2 mK, reaching very large sensitivities for scanning probe force sensors, 40 zN Hz-1/2, with a sensitivity to lateral force field gradients in the fN m-1 range. This opens the road toward explorations of the mechanical and thermal conduction properties of nanoresonators at minimal excitation level, and to nanomechanical vectorial imaging of faint forces at dilution temperatures.
RESUMEN
Quantum mechanics sets a limit for the precision of continuous measurement of the position of an oscillator. We show how it is possible to measure an oscillator without quantum back-action of the measurement by constructing one effective oscillator from two physical oscillators. We realize such a quantum mechanics-free subsystem using two micromechanical oscillators, and show the measurements of two collective quadratures while evading the quantum back-action by 8 decibels on both of them, obtaining a total noise within a factor of 2 of the full quantum limit. This facilitates the detection of weak forces and the generation and measurement of nonclassical motional states of the oscillators. Moreover, we directly verify the quantum entanglement of the two oscillators by measuring the Duan quantity 1.4 decibels below the separability bound.
RESUMEN
Directional transport is obtained in various multimode systems by driving multiple, nonreciprocally interfering interactions between individual bosonic modes. However, systems sustaining the required number of modes become physically complex. In our microwave-optomechanical experiment, we show how to configure nonreciprocal transport between frequency components of a single superconducting cavity coupled to two drumhead oscillators. The frequency components are promoted to Floquet modes and generate the missing dimension to realize an isolator and a directional amplifier. A second cavity left free by this arrangement is used to cool the mechanical oscillators and bring the transduction noise close to the quantum limit. We furthermore uncover a new type of instability specific to nonreciprocal coupling. Our approach is generic and can greatly simplify quantum signal processing and the design of topological lattices from low-dimensional systems.
RESUMEN
Thermal motion of nanomechanical probes directly impacts their sensitivities to external forces. Its proper understanding is therefore critical for ultimate force sensing. Here, we investigate a vectorial force field sensor: a singly-clamped nanowire oscillating along two quasi-frequency-degenerate transverse directions. Its insertion in a rotational optical force field couples its eigenmodes non-symmetrically, causing dramatic modifications of its mechanical properties. In particular, the eigenmodes lose their intrinsic orthogonality. We show that this circumstance is at the origin of an anomalous excess of noise and of a violation of the fluctuation dissipation relation. Our model, which quantitatively accounts for all observations, provides a novel modified version of the fluctuation dissipation theorem that remains valid in non-conservative rotational force fields, and that reveals the prominent role of non-axial mechanical susceptibilities. These findings help understand the intriguing properties of thermal fluctuations in non-reciprocally-coupled multimode systems.
