Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator

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