Research

Quantum Optomechanics

​ Our lab is working to build nanomechanical devices with ultralow dissipation, creating extremely sensitive optically probed, mechanical detectors that operate at a level where quantum noise matters. Fundamentally, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle demands that noise is added to any measurement, often referred to as quantum measurement backaction. In our case, the photons, which bounce off our device during the measurement, randomly kick the motion of the device. Usually, for macroscopic objects this extra motion is an undetectably small perturbation compared to jostling received from the ambient, thermal environment. However, our devices are so well isolated from their surroundings that this optical force noise is important. We are exploring new probing techniques that can avoid the deleterious effects of quantum backaction and surpass standard quantum noise limits. Such ideas may be useful in the most challenging measurement applications - mapping the tiny magnetic force from individual nuclear spins, measuring the minute perturbation from gravitational waves, observing as-of-yet unseen interactions with cosmic dark matter, or testing the predictions of so-call spontaneous wavefunction collapse models that seek to limit the effects of quantum mechanics on macroscopic objects. Our lab also works on methods to harness quantum noise for metrology, using the scale of quantum noise as the tick-marks on a ruler to calibrate optomechanical measurements of physical quantities such as temperature.

Quantum Transducers

Quantum networks will be used to connect to remote quantum information processing systems, combining the unique strengths of multiple platforms and allowing for large scale quantum computation and sharing of quantum resources. Optical signals will form the backbone of such networks – quantum information encoded as photons being shuttled over long distances with low loss and high speed. Our lab aims to build quantum transducers that faithfully interconvert microwave and optical signals, allowing room-temperature optical communication between superconducting quantum circuits, solid-state spin systems, piezoelectric resonators, and other sources of microwave quantum information, which are normally only sustained in cryogenic environments and do not naturally couple directly to light. We are building mechanically mediated quantum transducers, where an ultralow dissipation nanomechanical resonator is simultaneously coupled to an optical and microwave resonator, allowing information at the level of individual quanta to be communicated among all three systems.