Jonathan Kohler

Cavity-mediated coupling of mechanical oscillators limited by quantum back-action

Coupling two mechanical objects becomes tricky when they are quantum and can interact only through photons. An experiment now demonstrates such an optomechanical system with two separate atomic ensembles in the same optical cavity.

Complex Squeezing and Force Measurement Beyond the Standard Quantum Limit.

A continuous quantum field, such as a propagating beam of light, may be characterized by a squeezing spectrum that is inhomogeneous in frequency. We point out that homodyne detectors, which are commonly employed to detect quantum squeezing, are blind to squeezing spectra in which the correlation between amplitude and phase fluctuations is complex. We find theoretically that such complex squeezing is a component of ponderomotive squeezing of light through cavity optomechanics. We propose a detection scheme called synodyne detection, which reveals complex squeezing and allows the accounting of measurement backaction. Even with the optomechanical system subject to continuous measurement, such detection allows the measurement of one component of an external force with sensitivity only limited by the mechanical oscillators thermal occupation.

Negative-Mass Instability of the Spin and Motion of an Atomic Gas Driven by Optical Cavity Backaction

We realize a spin-orbit interaction between the collective spin precession and center-of-mass motion of a trapped ultracold atomic gas, mediated by spin- and position-dependent dispersive coupling to a driven optical cavity. The collective spin, precessing near its highest-energy state in an applied magnetic field, can be approximated as a negative-mass harmonic oscillator. When the Larmor precession and mechanical motion are nearly resonant, cavity mediated coupling leads to a negative-mass instability, driving exponential growth of a correlated mode of the hybrid system. We observe this growth imprinted on modulations of the cavity field and estimate the full covariance of the resulting two-mode state by observing its transient decay during subsequent free evolution.

Cavity-Assisted Measurement and Coherent Control of Collective Atomic Spin Oscillators

We demonstrate continuous measurement and coherent control of the collective spin of an atomic ensemble undergoing Larmor precession in a high-finesse optical cavity. The coupling of the precessing spin to the cavity field yields phenomena similar to those observed in cavity optomechanics, including cavity amplification, damping, and optical spring shifts. These effects arise from autonomous optical feedback onto the atomic spin dynamics, conditioned by the cavity spectrum. We use this feedback to stabilize the spin in either its high- or low-energy state, where, in equilibrium with measurement backaction heating, it achieves a steady-state temperature, indicated by an asymmetry between the Stokes and the anti-Stokes scattering rates. For sufficiently large Larmor frequency, such feedback stabilizes the spin ensemble in a nearly pure quantum state, in spite of continuous measurement by the cavity field.