Quantum squeezing-induced quantum entanglement and EPR steering in a coupled optomechanical system.

We propose a theoretical project in which quantum squeezing induces quantum entanglement and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering in a coupled whispering-gallery-mode optomechanical system. Through pumping the χ(2)-nonlinear resonator with the phase matching condition, the generated squeezed resonator mode and the mechanical mode of the optomechanical resonator can generate strong quantum entanglement and EPR steering, where the squeezing of the nonlinear resonator plays the vital role. The transitions from zero entanglement to strong entanglement and one-way steering to two-way steering can be realized by adjusting the system parameters appropriately. The photon-photon entanglement and steering between the two resonators can also be obtained by deducing the amplitude of the driving laser. Our project does not need an extraordinarily squeezed field, and it is convenient to manipulate and provides a novel and flexible avenue for diverse applications in quantum technology dependent on both optomechanical and photon-photon entanglement and steering.

Photon blockade with a trapped Λ-type three-level atom in asymmetrical cavity.

We propose a scheme to manipulate strong and nonreciprocal photon blockades in asymmetrical Fabry-Perot cavity with a Λ-type three-level atom. Utilizing the mechanisms of both conventional and unconventional blockade, the strong photon blockade is achieved by the anharmonic eigenenergy spectrum brought by Λ-type atom and the destructive quantum interference effect induced by a microwave field. By optimizing the system parameters, the manipulation of strong photon blockade over a wide range of cavity detuning can be realized. Using spatial symmetry breaking introduced by the asymmetry of cavity, the direction-dependent nonreciprocal photon blockade can be achieved, and the nonreciprocity can reach the maximum at optimal cavity detuning. In particular, manipulating the occurring position of nonreciprocal photon blockade can be implemented by simply adjusting the cavity detuning. Our scheme provides feasible access for generating high-quality nonreciprocal single-photon sources.

Squeezing-induced nonreciprocal photon blockade in an optomechanical microresonator.

We propose a scheme to generate nonreciprocal photon blockade in a stationary whispering gallery microresonator system based on two physical mechanisms. One of the two mechanisms is inspired by recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett.128, 083604 (2022)10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.083604], where the quantum squeezing caused by parametric interaction not only shifts the optical frequency of propagating mode but also enhances its optomechanical coupling, resulting in a nonreciprocal conventional photon blockade phenomenon. On the other hand, we also give another mechanism to generate stronger nonreciprocity of photon correlation according to the destructive quantum interference. Comparing these two strategies, the required nonlinear strength of parametric interaction in the second one is smaller, and the broadband squeezed vacuum field used to eliminate thermalization noise is no longer needed. All analyses and optimal parameter relations are further verified by numerically simulating the quantum master equation. Our proposed scheme opens a new avenue for achieving the nonreciprocal single photon source without stringent requirements, which may have critical applications in quantum communication, quantum information processing, and topological photonics.

Mechanical squeezing in an active-passive-coupled double-cavity optomechanical system via pump modulation.

We focus on the generation of mechanical squeezing by using periodically amplitude-modulated laser to drive an active-passive-coupled double-cavity optomechanical system, where the coupled gain cavity and loss cavity can form into a parity-time (P T)-symmetry system. The numerical analysis of the system stability shows that the system is more likely to be stable in the unbroken-P T-symmetry regime than in the broken-P T-symmetry regime. The mechanical squeezing in the active-passive system exhibits stronger robustness against the thermal noise than that in the passive-passive system, and the so-called 3 dB limit can be broken in the resolved-sideband regime. Furthermore, it is also found that the mechanical squeezing obtained in the unbroken-P T-symmetry region is stronger than that in the broken-P T-symmetry region. This work may be meaningful for the quantum state engineering in the gain-loss quantum system that contributes to the study of P T-symmetric physics in the quantum regime.

Generation and transfer of squeezed states in a cavity magnomechanical system by two-tone microwave fields.

We propose a scheme to generate squeezed states of magnon and phonon modes and verify squeezing transfer between different modes of distinct frequencies in a cavity magnomechanical system which is composed of a microwave cavity and a yttrium iron garnet sphere. We present that by activating the magnetostrictive force in the ferrimagnet, realized by driving the magnon mode with red-detuned and blue-detuned microwave fields, the driven magnon mode can be prepared in a squeezed state. Moreover, the squeezing can be transferred to the cavity mode via the cavity-magnon beamsplitter interaction with strong magnomechanical coupling. We show that under the weak coupling regime, large mechanical squeezing of phonon mode can be achieved, which verifies that our scheme can find the existence of quantum effects at macroscopic scales. Furthermore, distinct parameter regimes for obtaining large squeezing of the magnons and phonons are given, which is the principal feature of our scheme. The considered scheme can be extended to hybrid optical systems, and can facilitate the advancement for realization of strong mechanical squeezing in cavity magnomechanical systems.

Dissipative bosonic squeezing via frequency modulation and its application in optomechanics.

The dissipative squeezing mechanism is an effective method to generate the strong squeezing, which is important in the precision metrology. Here, we propose a practical method to achieve arbitrary bosonic squeezing via introducing frequency modulation into the coupled harmonic resonator model. We analyze the effect of frequency modulation and give the analytical and numerical squeezing results, respectively. To measure the accurate dynamic squeezing in our proposal, we give a more general defination of the relative squeezing degree. Finally, the proposed method is extended to generate the strong mechanical squeezing (>3 dB) in a practical optomechanical system consisting of a graphene mechanical oscillator coupled to a superconducting microwave cavity. The result indicates that the strong mechanical squeezing can be effectively achieved even when the mechanical oscillator is not initially in its ground state. The proposed method expands the study on nonclassical state and does not need the bichromatic microwave driving technology.

Enhanced photon blockade in an optomechanical system with parametric amplification.

We propose a scheme to enhance the single- and two-photon blockade effects significantly in a nonlinear hybrid optomechanical system with optical parametric amplification (OPA). The scheme does not rely on strong single-photon optomechanical coupling and can eliminate the disadvantages of suppressing multi-photon excitation incompletely. Through analyzing the single-photon blockade (1PB) mechanism and optimizing the system parameters, we obtain a perfect 1PB with a high occupancy probability of single-photon excitation, which means that a high-quality and efficient single-photon source can be generated. Moreover, we find that not only the two-photon blockade (2PB) effect is significantly enhanced, but also the region where 2PB occurs is widened when OPA exists, where we also derive the optimal parameter condition to maximize two-photon emission and higher photon excitations intensely suppressed at the same time.

Temperature-resistant generation of robust entanglement with blue-detuning driving and mechanical gain.

We present a proposal to generate robust optomechanical entanglement induced by the blue-detuning laser and the mechanical gain in a double-cavity optomechanical system. We show that the stability of the system can be obtained by introducing a cavity mode driven by the red-detuning laser in the blue-detuning regime. In contrast to the red-detuning regime, we find that the entanglement in the blue-detuning regime is extremely robust to temperature. The cavity mode driven by the blue-detuning laser can control indirectly the optomechanical entanglement between mechanical resonator and cavity mode driven by the red-detuning laser. Moreover, the entanglement between two cavity modes without direct coupling can also be achieved in our system. Although the entanglement is weak, it is robust to temperature, and meanwhile, the optomechanical entanglement is hardly affected by the temperature when the damping rate of the mechanical oscillator is close to zero. Furthermore, the entanglement amplification at high temperature can be achieved by adjusting the mechanical gain appropriately. Our proposal provides an efficient way to achieve robust optomechanical entanglement in the blue-detuning regime and entanglement amplification in optomechanical system with mechanical gain.

Ground-state cooling of mechanical oscillator via quadratic optomechanical coupling with two coupled optical cavities.

We present a scheme for the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like nonlinear ground-state cooling in a double-cavity optomechanical system in which an optical cavity mode is coupled parametrically to the square of the position of a mechanical oscillator, an additional auxiliary cavity is coupled to the optomechanical cavity. The optimum cooling conditions is derived, based on which the heating process can be well suppressed and the mechanical resonator can be cooled with an optimal effect to near its ground state through EIT-like cooling mechanism even in unresolved sideband regime. It is demonstrated by numerical simulations that not only the average phonon number of steady state is lower than that of single-cavity optomechanical system, but also the cooling rate is greatly faster than that of the linear optomechanical coupling due to the two-phonon cooling process in the quadratic coupling. Also, the ground-state cooling is achievable even with a relatively weak quadratic coupling strengthby tunning the coupling between two cavities to reach the optimum cooling conditions, thus provides an solution for overcoming the limitations of weak quadratic coupling rate in experiments. The proposed approach provides a platform for quantum manipulation of macroscopic mechanical devices beyond the resolved sideband limit and linear coupling regime.

Controllable photonic and phononic edge localization via optomechanically induced Kitaev phase.

Experimental realization of the Kitaev model is a greatly attractive topic due to the potential applications to build robust qubits against decoherence in topological quantum computation. In this work, we investigate the charged whispering-gallery microcavity array model and simulate the normal Kitaev chain under this mechanism in the first time. We find that the system reveals profound connections with the normal Kitaev chain and its some derivatives, and the topological property of the system depends on effective optomechanical coupling strength deeply. In optomechanically induced Kitaev topologically nontrivial phase, compared to the normal Kitaev chain in the Majorana basis, the novel and distinct structure of charged whispering-gallery microcavity array model leads to controllable photonic and phononic edge localization. Furthermore, we also simulate the extended Kitaev chain and show that two topologically different nontrivial phases of the system allow one to realize more freewheeling controllable photonic and phononic edge localization. Our model offers an alternative approach to correlate with other more complicated one-dimensional noninteracting spinless topological systems relevant to the p-wave superconducting pairing.

Ground-state cooling of rotating mirror in double-Laguerre-Gaussian-cavity with atomic ensemble.

A scheme is proposed to cool a rotating mirror close to its ground state in a double-Laguerre-Gaussian-cavity optomechanical system, where an auxiliary cavity and a two-level atomic ensemble simultaneously couple to the original optomechanical cavity. By choosing parameters reasonably, we find that the cooling process of the rotating mirror can be strengthened greatly while the heating process can be suppressed effectively. We show that the proposed ground-state cooling scheme can work well no matter whether in the weak or strong coupling regime for the atomic ensemble and original cavity. Compared with previous related schemes, our scheme works in the unresolved sideband regime with fewer strict limitations for the auxiliary systems.

Classical-to-quantum transition behavior between two oscillators separated in space under the action of optomechanical interaction.

We propose a scheme to show that the system consisting of two macroscopic oscillators separated in space which are coupled through Coulomb interaction displays the classical-to-quantum transition behavior under the action of optomechanical coupling interaction. Once the optomechanical coupling interaction disappears, the entanglement between the two separated oscillators disappears accordingly and the system will return to classical world even though there exists sufficiently strong Coulomb coupling between the oscillators. In addition, resorting to the squeezing of the cavity field generated by an optical parametric amplifier inside the cavity, we discuss the effect of squeezed light driving on this classical-to-quantum transition behavior instead of injecting the squeezed field directly. The results of numerical simulation show that the present scheme is feasible and practical and has stronger robustness against the environment temperature compared with previous schemes in current experimentally feasible regimes. The scheme might possibly help us to further clarify and grasp the classical-quantum boundary.

Steady-state mechanical squeezing in a double-cavity optomechanical system.

We study the physical properties of double-cavity optomechanical system in which the mechanical resonator interacts with one of the coupled cavities and another cavity is used as an auxiliary cavity. The model can be expected to achieve the strong optomechanical coupling strength and overcome the optomechanical cavity decay, simultaneously. Through the coherent auxiliary cavity interferences, the steady-state squeezing of mechanical resonator can be generated in highly unresolved sideband regime. The validity of the scheme is assessed by numerical simulation and theoretical analysis of the steady-state variance of the mechanical displacement quadrature. The scheme provides a platform for the mechanical squeezing beyond the resolved sideband limit and solves the restricted experimental bounds at present.

Robust entanglement between a movable mirror and atomic ensemble and entanglement transfer in coupled optomechanical system.

We propose a scheme for the creation of robust entanglement between a movable mirror and atomic ensemble at the macroscopic level in coupled optomechanical system. We numerically simulate the degree of entanglement of the bipartite macroscopic entanglement and show that it depends on the coupling strength between the cavities and is robust with respect to the certain environment temperature. Inspiringly and surprisingly, according to the reported relation between the mechanical damping rate and the mechanical frequency of the movable mirror, the numerical simulation result shows that such bipartite macroscopic entanglement persists for environment temperature up to 170 K, which breaks the liquid nitrogen cooling and liquid helium cooling and largely lowers down the experiment cost. We also investigate the entanglement transfer based on this coupled system. The scheme can be used for the realization of quantum memories for continuous variable quantum information processing and quantum-limited displacement measurements.

Efficient shortcuts to adiabatic passage for three-dimensional entanglement generation via transitionless quantum driving.

We propose an effective scheme of shortcuts to adiabaticity for generating a three-dimensional entanglement of two atoms trapped in a cavity using the transitionless quantum driving (TQD) approach. The key point of this approach is to construct an effective Hamiltonian that drives the dynamics of a system along instantaneous eigenstates of a reference Hamiltonian to reproduce the same final state as that of an adiabatic process within a much shorter time. In this paper, the shortcuts to adiabatic passage are constructed by introducing two auxiliary excited levels in each atom and applying extra cavity modes and classical fields to drive the relevant transitions. Thereby, the three-dimensional entanglement is obtained with a faster rate than that in the adiabatic passage. Moreover, the influences of atomic spontaneous emission and photon loss on the fidelity are discussed by numerical simulation. The results show that the speed of entanglement implementation is greatly improved by the use of adiabatic shortcuts and that this entanglement implementation is robust against decoherence. This will be beneficial to the preparation of high-dimensional entanglement in experiment and provides the necessary conditions for the application of high-dimensional entangled states in quantum information processing.

Steady-state mechanical squeezing in a hybrid atom-optomechanical system with a highly dissipative cavity.

Quantum squeezing of mechanical resonator is important for studying the macroscopic quantum effects and the precision metrology of weak forces. Here we give a theoretical study of a hybrid atom-optomechanical system in which the steady-state squeezing of the mechanical resonator can be generated via the mechanical nonlinearity and cavity cooling process. The validity of the scheme is assessed by simulating the steady-state variance of the mechanical displacement quadrature numerically. The scheme is robust against dissipation of the optical cavity, and the steady-state squeezing can be effectively generated in a highly dissipative cavity.

The beneficial effect of testing: an event-related potential study.

The enhanced memory performance for items that are tested as compared to being restudied (the testing effect) is a frequently reported memory phenomenon. According to the episodic context account of the testing effect, this beneficial effect of testing is related to a process which reinstates the previously learnt episodic information. Few studies have explored the neural correlates of this effect at the time point when testing takes place, however. In this study, we utilized the ERP correlates of successful memory encoding to address this issue, hypothesizing that if the benefit of testing is due to retrieval-related processes at test then subsequent memory effects (SMEs) should resemble the ERP correlates of retrieval-based processing in their temporal and spatial characteristics. Participants were asked to learn Swahili-German word pairs before items were presented in either a testing or a restudy condition. Memory performance was assessed immediately and 1-day later with a cued recall task. Successfully recalling items at test increased the likelihood that items were remembered over time compared to items which were only restudied. An ERP subsequent memory contrast (later remembered vs. later forgotten tested items), which reflects the engagement of processes that ensure items are recallable the next day were topographically comparable with the ERP correlate of immediate recollection (immediately remembered vs. immediately forgotten tested items). This result shows that the processes which allow items to be more memorable over time share qualitatively similar neural correlates with the processes that relate to successful retrieval at test. This finding supports the notion that testing is more beneficial than restudying on memory performance over time because of its engagement of retrieval processes, such as the re-encoding of actively retrieved memory representations.

Teleportation of a Toffoli gate among distant solid-state qubits with quantum dots embedded in optical microcavities.

Teleportation of unitary operations can be viewed as a quantum remote control. The remote realization of robust multiqubit logic gates among distant long-lived qubit registers is a key challenge for quantum computation and quantum information processing. Here we propose a simple and deterministic scheme for teleportation of a Toffoli gate among three spatially separated electron spin qubits in optical microcavities by using local linear optical operations, an auxiliary electron spin, two circularly-polarized entangled photon pairs, photon measurements, and classical communication. We assess the feasibility of the scheme and show that the scheme can be achieved with high average fidelity under the current technology. The scheme opens promising perspectives for constructing long-distance quantum communication and quantum computation networks with solid-state qubits.