High purity two-dimensional levitated mechanical oscillator

Year: 2025

Authors: Deplano Q., Pontin A., Ranfagni A., Marino F., Marin F.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Firenze, Dipartimento Fis & Astron, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy; INFN, Sez Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy; CNR INO, Florence, Italy; European Lab Nonlinear Spect LENS, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy.

Abstract: In recent years, levitated optomechanics has delivered on the promise of reaching the motional quantum ground state. An important next milestone of the field would be the generation of mechanical entanglement. An ideal candidate is the two-dimensional motion in the polarization plane of an optical tweezer inside an optical cavity, where optical and mechanical modes are coupled via coherent scattering. Achieving this goal requires two key conditions: two-dimensional ground state cooling along with substantial spectral overlap between the two modes. The latter is essential to generate the necessary correlations, but unfortunately, it hinders efficient cooling thus narrowing the useful parameter space. In this work, we report the achievement of a high purity two-dimensional state in a regime where the strong optomechanical coupling induces the desired spectral overlap between oscillations in different directions, as reflected in the non-trivial spectral shape of the detected cavity field. As a result, significant correlations consistently arise between any pair of orthogonal directions, preventing the motion from being reduced to two independent one-dimensional oscillators and leading to higher purity compared to that scenario. Our system serves as an excellent platform for realizing continuous variable entanglement in two-dimensional motion.

Journal/Review: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS

Volume: 16 (1)      Pages from: 4215-1  to: 4215-6

More Information: We acknowledge financial support from PNRR MUR Project No. PE0000023-NQSTI and by the European Commission-EU under the Infrastructure I-PHOQS -oe Integrated Infrastructure Initiative in Photonic and Quantum Sciences – [IR0000016, ID D2B8D520, CUP D2B8D520].
KeyWords: Quantum Control; Entanglement; Nanoparticle; Space
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59213-3