Squeezed light from an oscillator measured at the rate of oscillation.

Sufficiently fast continuous measurements of the position of an oscillator approach measurements projective on position eigenstates. We evidence the transition into the projective regime for a spin oscillator within an ensemble of 2 × 1010 room-temperature atoms by observing correlations between the quadratures of the meter light field. These correlations squeeze the fluctuations of one light quadrature below the vacuum level. When the measurement is slower than the oscillation, we generate 11 . 5 - 1.5 + 2.5 dB and detect 8 . 5 - 0.1 + 0.1 dB of squeezing in a tunable band that is a fraction of the resonance frequency. When the measurement is as fast as the oscillation, we detect 4.7 dB of squeezing that spans more than one decade of frequencies below the resonance. Our results demonstrate a new regime of continuous quantum measurements on material oscillators, and set a new benchmark for the performance of a linear quantum sensor.

Prediction-Retrodiction Measurements for Teleportation and Conditional State Transfer.

Regular measurements allow predicting the future and retrodicting the past of quantum systems. Time-nonlocal measurements can leave the future and the past uncertain, yet establish a relation between them. We show that continuous time-nonlocal measurements can be used to transfer a quantum state via teleportation or direct transmission. Considering two oscillators probed by traveling fields, we analytically identify strategies for performing the state transfer perfectly across a wide range of linear oscillator-field interactions beyond the pure beam-splitter and two-mode-squeezing types.

Quantum-Limited Measurements Using an Optical Cavity with Modulated Intrinsic Loss.

We analyze a cavity optomechanical setup, in which the position of an oscillator modulates the internal optical loss. We show that, in contrast to systems with a fixed internal loss, in such a setup, quantum-limited position measurements can be performed and formulate conditions under which it is possible. Additionally, under these conditions the setup exhibits a number of potential benefits for practical operation, including the complete absence of dynamical backaction and optomechanical instability, rejection of classical laser noise, and thermal fluctuations of cavity frequency from the measurement record. We address a few potential experimental implementations of this setup.

Clamp-Tapering Increases the Quality Factor of Stressed Nanobeams.

Stressed nanomechanical resonators are known to have exceptionally high quality factors ( Q) due to the dilution of intrinsic dissipation by stress. Typically, the amount of dissipation dilution and thus the resonator Q is limited by the high mode curvature region near the clamps. Here we study the effect of clamp geometry on the Q of nanobeams made of high-stress Si3N4. We find that tapering the beam near the clamps, thus locally increasing the stress, leads to an increased Q of MHz-frequency low order modes due to enhanced dissipation dilution. Contrary to recent studies of tethered-membrane resonators, we find that widening the clamps leads to a decreased Q despite increased stress in the beam bulk. The tapered-clamping approach has practical advantages compared to the recently developed "soft-clamping" technique, as it enhances the Q of the fundamental mode and can be implemented without increasing the device size.