Ann. Phys. (Berlin) 527, No. 12, A13A14 (2015) / DOI 10.1002/andp.

201570017

Physics Forum

EDITORIAL

Quantum Mechanical Systems: bridging foundations

and applications
Jack Harris, Peter Rabl, and Albert Schliesser

As probes for weak forces, mechanical resonators have been prime tools
for physicists for centuries. From
the Cavendish experiment to gravitational wave detectors, from Lebedev and Hulls radiometers to quantum logic atomic clocks, from the
atomic force microscope to singlespin magnetometers: at the heart of
these instruments lies a mechanical resonator, often engineered to
have a very high quality factor Q, so
that its exposure to forces other than
those of interest is minimized.
Over the last decades, rapid advances in micro- and nanofabrication technologies have multiplied
our possibilities to couple functionalised mechanical devices to
a variety of target systems. Research with and on mechanical devices has flourished correspondingly. Most notably, micromechanical resonators have been coupled
to the electromagnetic modes of
optical and microwave resonators.
About ten years ago, the demonstration of dynamical backaction cooling effects in such systems stirred
particular attention. It showed that
the motional degree of freedom of
mesoscopic mechanical oscillators
could be frozen out, in a fashion closely related to laser cooling
of atomic gases. Many researchers
were inspired by this new possibility,
aware of the revolution laser cooling had brought to atomic physics.
The intriguing promise to manipulate the motion of engineered me-

chanical systems at the quantum

level had come within reach.
A new field now delivers on this
promise. Researchers from atomic
physics, quantum optics, and
condensed matter physics have
joined forces, and successfully
united techniques and concepts
from seemingly disparate fields.
Today it is possible to prepare a
nanomechanical oscillator close to
the quantum ground state, and have
it exchange non-classical excitations
with an electromagnetic radiation
mode. First realisations of entangled
states involving mechanical devices
have been reported.
The devices employed in these
experiments have evolved rapidly.
Q-factors have been enhanced
dramatically; at the same time,
coupling to the systems of interest has been boosted by orders of
magnitudeoften by bringing one
or several dimensions of the device
to the nanoscale. Both optical and
microwave fields have been firmly
established to allow quantumcoherent control of mechanical
devices.
Yet the field is only in its infancy. Better systems and new theoretical concepts and schemes are
developed at a staggering pace. And
the prospects are exciting: the recent
progress with mechanical quantum
systems enables, for the first time,
to test the paradigms of quantum
measurement theory with massive
mechanical objects. Its understand-


C 2015 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

ing and exploitation will allow pushing the limits of mechanically transduced measurements to the ultimate. Given these advances, mechanical systems are also poised to
play a role in the larger effort of the
quantum physics community to realise complex quantum systems for
sensing, communication and computational tasks. In particular, engineered coupling of phonons to
photons and spins could connect
otherwise incompatible subsystems.
In the future, quantum experiments
with massive mechanical devices
might even help elucidate the interplay between quantum and gravitational physics, a terra incognita at
the foundation of our physical understanding of the world.
This special issue presents a cross
section of recent developments in
this field, both through review papers discussing topics of particular
interest more broadly, and a number
of original research reports.
The paper by Tian (pp.114)
reviews the theory, first implementations and applications of
opto-electromechanical transducers, in which a mechanical mode
is coupled simultaneously to two
electromagnetic modes, one in the
optical and one in the microwave
domain. A proper arrangement of
pump fields enables a cascaded conversion of excitations from one field
mode to the other through the mechanical device, and thus a coherent
conversion of (quantum) signals

A13

Physics Forum

J. Harris, P. Rabl, and A. Schliesser: Quantum Mechanical Systems: bridging foundations and applications

between vastly different frequency

regimes. This could be a viable route
to connect microwave quantum
systemsas they are championed
by the circuit QED community
through optical fibre links.
Vanner et al. (pp. 1526) discuss
the theoretical underpinnings and
experimental prospects of quantum
state reconstruction of mechanical
oscillators using quantum optical
tools. State tomography will be a
key requirement in many upcoming experiments to identify quantum
signatures of mechanical resonator
states, rendering this a very timely
analysis. Adding to the topic of
quantum measurements, but going
beyond standard techniques, Polzik
et al. (pp. A15-A20) review some recent ideas on measuring trajectories
without uncertainties. What seemingly violates the laws of quantum
mechanics, might ultimately lead to
improved techniques for position
and weak force sensing.
Castellanos-Gomez et al. (pp. 27
44) provide a different perspective,
as they highlight recent advances
in experiments with atomically thin
2-dimensional materials, such as
graphene. They focus on studies of
their static and dynamic mechanical properties. Ultralight oscillators
realised in these materials can still
maintain very high quality factors
and are thus interesting candidates
for hybrid quantum systems. Coupling to microwave photons has already been demonstrated, and the
prospects of spin-mechanics coupling are discussed.
Rodriguez et al. (pp. 4577) zoom
into the nature of optomechanical
forces and review the wide range
of possibilities to engineer them in
micro- and nano-photonic structures. Beyond that, they revisit the
important concept that electromag-

netic modes also mediate a force

even if they are only occupied by
vacuum. These Casimir forces, their
engineering and control, will play an
increasingly important role as mechanical length scales are reduced.
The remainder of this special
issue consists of original research
papers, which cover topics ranging from improved optomechanical
system designs to the analysis of
phase transitions and preparation
schemes for macroscopic superposition states in hybrid quantum devices. This selection gives a glance
at the diverse activities centred on
quantum mechanical systems and
the interplay between technological
progress and fundamental research
that drives this field into yet unforeseeable directions.

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Jack Harris
Department of Physics, Yale University, New
Haven, CT, USA
E-mail: jack.harris@yale.edu
Peter Rabl
Atominstitut Vienna University of Technology,
Vienna, Austria
E-mail: peter.rabl@ati.ac.at
Albert Schliesser
Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University,
Denmark
E-mail: albert.schliesser@nbi.dk

Jack Harris received his Ph.D.

in 2000 from
UCSB. He was a
postdoc at the
Harvard/MIT
Center for Ultracold Atoms,
and in 2004 joined the Physics Department at Yale University where he
is an Associate Professor. His research

focuses on the development of new

optomechanical systems, and on
mesoscopic electronics.
Peter Rabl received his Ph.D.
in 2006 from
the University
of Innsbruck.
After
postdoc positions
at
ITAMP/
Harvard
and
the IQOQI in
Innsbruck he was awarded the START
prize of the Austrian ministry of
Science and Research in 2011 and
became Ass. Professor at the Vienna University of Technology in
2013. His research focuses on the
implementation of quantum information processing schemes in AMO,
solid-state and hybrid quantum
systems. He has worked on some of
the initial ideas for mechanical quantum transducers and on strongly
coupled optomechanical devices
for implementing photon-photon
interactions.
Albert
Schliesser
received
his
Ph.D.
degree
in 2009 from
the
LudwigMaximilians
Universitat in
Munich with a
work performed at the Max Planck
Institute of Quantum Optics. After
a postdoctoral stay at the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) he joined the Niels Bohr
Institute as an Assistant Professor.
His research focuses on novel effects
such as laser cooling, optomechanically induced transparency, and
coherent transduction cascades, in
various electro- and optomechanical
platforms.


C 2015 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim