Broadband, High-Reflectivity Dielectric Mirrors at Wafer Scale: Combining Photonic Crystal and Metasurface Architectures for Advanced Lightsails.

Highly ambitious initiatives aspire to propel a miniature spacecraft to a neighboring star within a human generation, leveraging the radiation pressure of lasers for propulsion. One major challenge for this enormous feat is to build a meter-scale, ultralow mass lightsail with broadband reflectivity. In this work, we present the design and fabrication of a lightsail composed of two distinct dielectric layers with photonic crystal/metasurface structure covering a 4" wafer. We achieved broadband reflection of >70% spanning over the full Doppler-shifted laser wavelength range during spacecraft acceleration with a low total mass in the range of a few grams when scaled up to meter size. Furthermore, we find new paths to reliably fabricate these subwavelength structures over macroscopic areas and then systematically characterize their optical performance, confirming their suitability for future lightsail applications. Our innovative device and precise nanofabrication approaches represent a significant leap toward interstellar exploration.

Remote quantum entanglement between two micromechanical oscillators.

Entanglement, an essential feature of quantum theory that allows for inseparable quantum correlations to be shared between distant parties, is a crucial resource for quantum networks 1 . Of particular importance is the ability to distribute entanglement between remote objects that can also serve as quantum memories. This has been previously realized using systems such as warm2,3 and cold atomic vapours4,5, individual atoms 6 and ions7,8, and defects in solid-state systems9-11. Practical communication applications require a combination of several advantageous features, such as a particular operating wavelength, high bandwidth and long memory lifetimes. Here we introduce a purely micromachined solid-state platform in the form of chip-based optomechanical resonators made of nanostructured silicon beams. We create and demonstrate entanglement between two micromechanical oscillators across two chips that are separated by 20 centimetres . The entangled quantum state is distributed by an optical field at a designed wavelength near 1,550 nanometres. Therefore, our system can be directly incorporated in a realistic fibre-optic quantum network operating in the conventional optical telecommunication band. Our results are an important step towards the development of large-area quantum networks based on silicon photonics.

Frequency Tunable, Cavity-Enhanced Single Erbium Quantum Emitter in the Telecom Band.

Single quantum emitters embedded in solid-state hosts are an ideal platform for realizing quantum information processors and quantum network nodes. Among the currently investigated candidates, Er^{3+} ions are particularly appealing due to their 1.5 µm optical transition in the telecom band as well as their long spin coherence times. However, the long lifetimes of the excited state-generally in excess of 1 ms-along with the inhomogeneous broadening of the optical transition result in significant challenges. Photon emission rates are prohibitively small, and different emitters generally create photons with distinct spectra, thereby preventing multiphoton interference-a requirement for building large-scale, multinode quantum networks. Here we solve this challenge by demonstrating for the first time linear Stark tuning of the emission frequency of a single Er^{3+} ion. Our ions are embedded in a lithium niobate crystal and couple evanescently to a silicon nanophotonic crystal cavity that provides a strong increase of the measured decay rate. By applying an electric field along the crystal c axis, we achieve a Stark tuning greater than the ion's linewidth without changing the single-photon emission statistics of the ion. These results are a key step towards rare earth ion-based quantum networks.

Non-classical correlations between single photons and phonons from a mechanical oscillator.

Interfacing a single photon with another quantum system is a key capability in modern quantum information science. It allows quantum states of matter, such as spin states of atoms, atomic ensembles or solids, to be prepared and manipulated by photon counting and, in particular, to be distributed over long distances. Such light-matter interfaces have become crucial to fundamental tests of quantum physics and realizations of quantum networks. Here we report non-classical correlations between single photons and phonons--the quanta of mechanical motion--from a nanomechanical resonator. We implement a full quantum protocol involving initialization of the resonator in its quantum ground state of motion and subsequent generation and read-out of correlated photon-phonon pairs. The observed violation of a Cauchy-Schwarz inequality is clear evidence for the non-classical nature of the mechanical state generated. Our results demonstrate the availability of on-chip solid-state mechanical resonators as light-matter quantum interfaces. The performance we achieved will enable studies of macroscopic quantum phenomena as well as applications in quantum communication, as quantum memories and as quantum transducers.

Hybrid Integration of Silicon Photonic Devices on Lithium Niobate for Optomechanical Wavelength Conversion.

The rapid development of quantum information processors has accelerated the demand for technologies that enable quantum networking. One promising approach uses mechanical resonators as an intermediary between microwave and optical fields. Signals from a superconducting, topological, or spin qubit processor can then be converted coherently to optical states at telecom wavelengths. However, current devices built from homogeneous structures suffer from added noise and a small conversion efficiency. Combining advantageous properties of different materials into a heterogeneous design should allow for superior quantum transduction devices-so far these hybrid approaches have however been hampered by complex fabrication procedures. Here we present a novel integration method, based on previous pick-and-place ideas, that can combine independently fabricated device components of different materials into a single device. The method allows for a precision alignment by continuous optical monitoring during the process. Using our method, we assemble a hybrid silicon-lithium niobate device with state-of-the-art wavelength conversion characteristics.

Phonon counting and intensity interferometry of a nanomechanical resonator.

In optics, the ability to measure individual quanta of light (photons) enables a great many applications, ranging from dynamic imaging within living organisms to secure quantum communication. Pioneering photon counting experiments, such as the intensity interferometry performed by Hanbury Brown and Twiss to measure the angular width of visible stars, have played a critical role in our understanding of the full quantum nature of light. As with matter at the atomic scale, the laws of quantum mechanics also govern the properties of macroscopic mechanical objects, providing fundamental quantum limits to the sensitivity of mechanical sensors and transducers. Current research in cavity optomechanics seeks to use light to explore the quantum properties of mechanical systems ranging in size from kilogram-mass mirrors to nanoscale membranes, as well as to develop technologies for precision sensing and quantum information processing. Here we use an optical probe and single-photon detection to study the acoustic emission and absorption processes in a silicon nanomechanical resonator, and perform a measurement similar to that used by Hanbury Brown and Twiss to measure correlations in the emitted phonons as the resonator undergoes a parametric instability formally equivalent to that of a laser. Owing to the cavity-enhanced coupling of light with mechanical motion, this effective phonon counting technique has a noise equivalent phonon sensitivity of 0.89 ± 0.05. With straightforward improvements to this method, a variety of quantum state engineering tasks using mesoscopic mechanical resonators would be enabled, including the generation and heralding of single-phonon Fock states and the quantum entanglement of remote mechanical elements.

Feedback Cooling of a Room Temperature Mechanical Oscillator close to its Motional Ground State.

Preparing mechanical systems in their lowest possible entropy state, the quantum ground state, starting from a room temperature environment is a key challenge in quantum optomechanics. This would not only enable creating quantum states of truly macroscopic systems, but at the same time also lay the groundwork for a new generation of quantum-limited mechanical sensors in ambient environments. Laser cooling of optomechanical devices using the radiation pressure force combined with cryogenic precooling has been successful at demonstrating ground state preparation of various devices, while a similar demonstration starting from a room temperature environment remains an outstanding goal. Here, we combine integrated nanophotonics with phononic band gap engineering to simultaneously overcome prior limitations in the isolation from the surrounding environment and the achievable mechanical frequencies, as well as limited optomechanical coupling strength, demonstrating a single-photon cooperativity of 200. This new microchip technology allows us to feedback cool a mechanical resonator to around 1 mK, near its motional ground state, from room temperature. Our experiment marks a major step toward accessible, widespread quantum technologies with mechanical resonators.

Gallium Phosphide as a Piezoelectric Platform for Quantum Optomechanics.

Recent years have seen extraordinary progress in creating quantum states of mechanical oscillators, leading to great interest in potential applications for such systems in both fundamental as well as applied quantum science. One example is the use of these devices as transducers between otherwise disparate quantum systems. In this regard, a promising approach is to build integrated piezoelectric optomechanical devices that are then coupled to microwave circuits. Optical absorption, low quality factors, and other challenges have up to now prevented operation in the quantum regime, however. Here, we design and characterize such a piezoelectric optomechanical device fabricated from gallium phosphide in which a 2.9 GHz mechanical mode is coupled to a high quality factor optical resonator in the telecom band. The large electronic band gap and the resulting low optical absorption of this new material, on par with devices fabricated from silicon, allows us to demonstrate quantum behavior of the structure. This not only opens the way for realizing noise-free quantum transduction between microwaves and optics, but in principle also from various color centers with optical transitions in the near visible to the telecom band.

Nanofabricated tips for device-based scanning tunneling microscopy.

We report on the fabrication and performance of a new kind of tip for scanning tunneling microscopy. By fully incorporating a metallic tip on a silicon chip using modern micromachining and nanofabrication techniques, we realize so-called smart tips and show the possibility of device-based STM tips. Contrary to conventional etched metal wire tips, these can be integrated into lithographically defined electrical circuits. We describe a new fabrication method to create a defined apex on a silicon chip and experimentally demonstrate the high performance of the smart tips, both in stability and resolution. In situ tip preparation methods are possible and we verify that they can resolve the herringbone reconstruction and Friedel oscillations on Au(111) surfaces. We further present an overview of possible applications.

Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator.

Monitoring a mechanical object's motion, even with the gentle touch of light, fundamentally alters its dynamics. The experimental manifestation of this basic principle of quantum mechanics, its link to the quantum nature of light and the extension of quantum measurement to the macroscopic realm have all received extensive attention over the past half-century. The use of squeezed light, with quantum fluctuations below that of the vacuum field, was proposed nearly three decades ago as a means of reducing the optical read-out noise in precision force measurements. Conversely, it has also been proposed that a continuous measurement of a mirror's position with light may itself give rise to squeezed light. Such squeezed-light generation has recently been demonstrated in a system of ultracold gas-phase atoms whose centre-of-mass motion is analogous to the motion of a mirror. Here we describe the continuous position measurement of a solid-state, optomechanical system fabricated from a silicon microchip and comprising a micromechanical resonator coupled to a nanophotonic cavity. Laser light sent into the cavity is used to measure the fluctuations in the position of the mechanical resonator at a measurement rate comparable to its resonance frequency and greater than its thermal decoherence rate. Despite the mechanical resonator's highly excited thermal state (10(4) phonons), we observe, through homodyne detection, squeezing of the reflected light's fluctuation spectrum at a level 4.5 ± 0.2 per cent below that of vacuum noise over a bandwidth of a few megahertz around the mechanical resonance frequency of 28 megahertz. With further device improvements, on-chip squeezing at significant levels should be possible, making such integrated microscale devices well suited for precision metrology applications.

Integrated Optomechanical Arrays of Two High Reflectivity SiN Membranes.

Multielement cavity optomechanics constitutes a direction to observe novel effects with mechanical resonators. Several exciting ideas include superradiance, increased optomechanical coupling, and quantum effects between distinct mechanical modes among others. Realizing these experiments has so far been difficult, because of the need for extremely precise positioning of the elements relative to one another due to the high-reflectivity required for each element. Here we overcome this challenge and present the fabrication of monolithic arrays of two highly reflective mechanical resonators in a single chip. We characterize the optical spectra and losses of these 200 µm long Fabry-Pérot interferometers, measuring finesse values of up to 220. In addition, we observe an enhancement of the coupling rate between the cavity field and the mechanical center-of-mass mode compared to the single membrane case. Further enhancements in coupling with these devices are predicted, potentially reaching the single-photon strong coupling regime, giving these integrated structures an exciting prospect for future multimode quantum experiments.

Centimeter-scale suspended photonic crystal mirrors.

Demand for lightweight, highly reflective and mechanically compliant mirrors for optics experiments has seen a significant surge. In this aspect, photonic crystal (PhC) membranes are ideal alternatives to conventional mirrors, as they provide high reflectivity with only a single suspended layer of patterned dielectric material. However, due to limitations in nanofabrication, these devices are usually not wider than 300 µm. Here we experimentally demonstrate suspended PhC mirrors spanning areas up to 10 × 10 mm2. We overcome limitations imposed by the size of the PhC and measure reflectivities greater than 90 % on 56 nm thick mirrors at a wavelength of 1550 nm-an unrivaled performance compared to PhC mirrors with micro scale diameters. These structures bridge the gap between nano scale technologies and macroscopic optical elements.

Optomechanical Bell Test.

Over the past few decades, experimental tests of Bell-type inequalities have been at the forefront of understanding quantum mechanics and its implications. These strong bounds on specific measurements on a physical system originate from some of the most fundamental concepts of classical physics-in particular that properties of an object are well-defined independent of measurements (realism) and only affected by local interactions (locality). The violation of these bounds unambiguously shows that the measured system does not behave classically, void of any assumption on the validity of quantum theory. It has also found applications in quantum technologies for certifying the suitability of devices for generating quantum randomness, distributing secret keys and for quantum computing. Here we report on the violation of a Bell inequality involving a massive, macroscopic mechanical system. We create light-matter entanglement between the vibrational motion of two silicon optomechanical oscillators, each comprising approx. 10^{10} atoms, and two optical modes. This state allows us to violate a Bell inequality by more than 4 standard deviations, directly confirming the nonclassical behavior of our optomechanical system under the fair sampling assumption.

Laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state.

The simple mechanical oscillator, canonically consisting of a coupled mass-spring system, is used in a wide variety of sensitive measurements, including the detection of weak forces and small masses. On the one hand, a classical oscillator has a well-defined amplitude of motion; a quantum oscillator, on the other hand, has a lowest-energy state, or ground state, with a finite-amplitude uncertainty corresponding to zero-point motion. On the macroscopic scale of our everyday experience, owing to interactions with its highly fluctuating thermal environment a mechanical oscillator is filled with many energy quanta and its quantum nature is all but hidden. Recently, in experiments performed at temperatures of a few hundredths of a kelvin, engineered nanomechanical resonators coupled to electrical circuits have been measured to be oscillating in their quantum ground state. These experiments, in addition to providing a glimpse into the underlying quantum behaviour of mesoscopic systems consisting of billions of atoms, represent the initial steps towards the use of mechanical devices as tools for quantum metrology or as a means of coupling hybrid quantum systems. Here we report the development of a coupled, nanoscale optical and mechanical resonator formed in a silicon microchip, in which radiation pressure from a laser is used to cool the mechanical motion down to its quantum ground state (reaching an average phonon occupancy number of 0.85 ± 0.08). This cooling is realized at an environmental temperature of 20 K, roughly one thousand times larger than in previous experiments and paves the way for optical control of mesoscale mechanical oscillators in the quantum regime.

Observation of strong coupling between a micromechanical resonator and an optical cavity field.

Achieving coherent quantum control over massive mechanical resonators is a current research goal. Nano- and micromechanical devices can be coupled to a variety of systems, for example to single electrons by electrostatic or magnetic coupling, and to photons by radiation pressure or optical dipole forces. So far, all such experiments have operated in a regime of weak coupling, in which reversible energy exchange between the mechanical device and its coupled partner is suppressed by fast decoherence of the individual systems to their local environments. Controlled quantum experiments are in principle not possible in such a regime, but instead require strong coupling. So far, this has been demonstrated only between microscopic quantum systems, such as atoms and photons (in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics) or solid state qubits and photons. Strong coupling is an essential requirement for the preparation of mechanical quantum states, such as squeezed or entangled states, and also for using mechanical resonators in the context of quantum information processing, for example, as quantum transducers. Here we report the observation of optomechanical normal mode splitting, which provides unambiguous evidence for strong coupling of cavity photons to a mechanical resonator. This paves the way towards full quantum optical control of nano- and micromechanical devices.

Two-dimensional phononic-photonic band gap optomechanical crystal cavity.

We present the fabrication and characterization of an artificial crystal structure formed from a thin film of silicon that has a full phononic band gap for microwave X-band phonons and a two-dimensional pseudo-band gap for near-infrared photons. An engineered defect in the crystal structure is used to localize optical and mechanical resonances in the band gap of the planar crystal. Two-tone optical spectroscopy is used to characterize the cavity system, showing a large coupling (g0/2π≈220 kHz) between the fundamental optical cavity resonance at ωo/2π=195 THz and colocalized mechanical resonances at frequency ωm/2π≈9.3 GHz.

An integrated microwave-to-optics interface for scalable quantum computing.

Microwave-to-optics transduction is emerging as a vital technology for scaling quantum computers and quantum networks. To establish useful entanglement links between qubit processing units, several key conditions must be simultaneously met: the transducer must add less than a single quantum of input-referred noise and operate with high efficiency, as well as large bandwidth and high repetition rate. Here we present a design for an integrated transducer based on a planar superconducting resonator coupled to a silicon photonic cavity through a mechanical oscillator made of lithium niobate on silicon. We experimentally demonstrate its performance with a transduction efficiency of 0.9% with 1 µW of continuous optical power and a spectral bandwidth of 14.8 MHz. With short optical pulses, we measure the added noise that is limited to a few photons, with a repetition rate of up to 100 kHz. Our device directly couples to a 50 Ω transmission line and can be scaled to a large number of transducers on a single chip, laying the foundations for distributed quantum computing.

Highly efficient heralding of entangled single photons.

Single photons are an important prerequisite for a broad spectrum of quantum optical applications. We experimentally demonstrate a heralded single-photon source based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion in collinear bulk optics, and fiber-coupled bolometric transition-edge sensors. Without correcting for background, losses, or detection inefficiencies, we measure an overall heralding efficiency of 83%. By violating a Bell inequality, we confirm the single-photon character and high-quality entanglement of our heralded single photons which, in combination with the high heralding efficiency, are a necessary ingredient for advanced quantum communication protocols such as one-sided device-independent quantum key distribution.

An experimental test of non-local realism.

Most working scientists hold fast to the concept of 'realism'--a viewpoint according to which an external reality exists independent of observation. But quantum physics has shattered some of our cornerstone beliefs. According to Bell's theorem, any theory that is based on the joint assumption of realism and locality (meaning that local events cannot be affected by actions in space-like separated regions) is at variance with certain quantum predictions. Experiments with entangled pairs of particles have amply confirmed these quantum predictions, thus rendering local realistic theories untenable. Maintaining realism as a fundamental concept would therefore necessitate the introduction of 'spooky' actions that defy locality. Here we show by both theory and experiment that a broad and rather reasonable class of such non-local realistic theories is incompatible with experimentally observable quantum correlations. In the experiment, we measure previously untested correlations between two entangled photons, and show that these correlations violate an inequality proposed by Leggett for non-local realistic theories. Our result suggests that giving up the concept of locality is not sufficient to be consistent with quantum experiments, unless certain intuitive features of realism are abandoned.

Active-feedback quantum control of an integrated low-frequency mechanical resonator.

Preparing a massive mechanical resonator in a state with quantum limited motional energy provides a promising platform for studying fundamental physics with macroscopic systems and allows to realize a variety of applications, including precise sensing. While several demonstrations of such ground-state cooled systems have been achieved, in particular in sideband-resolved cavity optomechanics, for many systems overcoming the heating from the thermal bath remains a major challenge. In contrast, optomechanical systems in the sideband-unresolved limit are much easier to realize due to the relaxed requirements on their optical properties, and the possibility to use a feedback control schemes to reduce the motional energy. The achievable thermal occupation is ultimately limited by the correlation between the measurement precision and the back-action from the measurement. Here, we demonstrate measurement-based feedback cooling on a fully integrated optomechanical device fabricated using a pick-and-place method, operating in the deep sideband-unresolved limit. With the large optomechanical interaction and a low thermal decoherence rate, we achieve a minimal average phonon occupation of 0.76 when pre-cooled with liquid helium and 3.5 with liquid nitrogen. Significant sideband asymmetry for both bath temperatures verifies the quantum character of the mechanical motion. Our method and device are ideally suited for sensing applications directly operating at the quantum limit, greatly simplifying the operation of an optomechanical system in this regime.