Roadmap on quantum nanotechnologies.

Quantum phenomena are typically observable at length and time scales smaller than those of our everyday experience, often involving individual particles or excitations. The past few decades have seen a revolution in the ability to structure matter at the nanoscale, and experiments at the single particle level have become commonplace. This has opened wide new avenues for exploring and harnessing quantum mechanical effects in condensed matter. These quantum phenomena, in turn, have the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, compute and probe the nanoscale world. Here, we review developments in key areas of quantum research in light of the nanotechnologies that enable them, with a view to what the future holds. Materials and devices with nanoscale features are used for quantum metrology and sensing, as building blocks for quantum computing, and as sources and detectors for quantum communication. They enable explorations of quantum behaviour and unconventional states in nano- and opto-mechanical systems, low-dimensional systems, molecular devices, nano-plasmonics, quantum electrodynamics, scanning tunnelling microscopy, and more. This rapidly expanding intersection of nanotechnology and quantum science/technology is mutually beneficial to both fields, laying claim to some of the most exciting scientific leaps of the last decade, with more on the horizon.

Measurements of nanoresonator-qubit interactions in a hybrid quantum electromechanical system.

Experiments to probe the basic quantum properties of motional degrees of freedom of mechanical systems have developed rapidly over the last decade. One promising approach is to use hybrid electromechanical systems incorporating superconducting qubits and microwave circuitry. However, a critical challenge facing the development of these systems is to achieve strong coupling between mechanics and qubits while simultaneously reducing coupling of both the qubit and mechanical mode to the environment. Here we report measurements of a qubit-coupled mechanical resonator system consisting of an ultra-high-frequency nanoresonator and a long coherence-time superconducting transmon qubit, embedded in a superconducting coplanar waveguide cavity. It is demonstrated that the nanoresonator and transmon have commensurate energies and transmon coherence times are one order of magnitude larger than for all previously reported qubit-coupled nanoresonators. Moreover, we show that numerical simulations of this new hybrid quantum system are in good agreement with spectroscopic measurements and suggest that the nanoresonator in our device resides at low thermal occupation number, near its ground state, acting as a dissipative bath seen by the qubit. We also outline how this system could soon be developed as a platform for implementing more advanced experiments with direct relevance to quantum information processing and quantum thermodynamics, including the study of nanoresonator quantum noise properties, reservoir engineering, and nanomechanical quantum state generation and detection.

Nanomechanical measurements of a superconducting qubit.

The observation of the quantum states of motion of a macroscopic mechanical structure remains an open challenge in quantum-state preparation and measurement. One approach that has received extensive theoretical attention is the integration of superconducting qubits as control and detection elements in nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). Here we report measurements of a NEMS resonator coupled to a superconducting qubit, a Cooper-pair box. We demonstrate that the coupling results in a dispersive shift of the nanomechanical frequency that is the mechanical analogue of the 'single-atom index effect' experienced by electromagnetic resonators in cavity quantum electrodynamics. The large magnitude of the dispersive interaction allows us to perform NEMS-based spectroscopy of the superconducting qubit, and enables observation of Landau-Zener interference effects-a demonstration of nanomechanical read-out of quantum interference.

Cooling a nanomechanical resonator with quantum back-action.

Quantum mechanics demands that the act of measurement must affect the measured object. When a linear amplifier is used to continuously monitor the position of an object, the Heisenberg uncertainty relationship requires that the object be driven by force impulses, called back-action. Here we measure the back-action of a superconducting single-electron transistor (SSET) on a radio-frequency nanomechanical resonator. The conductance of the SSET, which is capacitively coupled to the resonator, provides a sensitive probe of the latter's position; back-action effects manifest themselves as an effective thermal bath, the properties of which depend sensitively on SSET bias conditions. Surprisingly, when the SSET is biased near a transport resonance, we observe cooling of the nanomechanical mode from 550 mK to 300 mK--an effect that is analogous to laser cooling in atomic physics. Our measurements have implications for nanomechanical readout of quantum information devices and the limits of ultrasensitive force microscopy (such as single-nuclear-spin magnetic resonance force microscopy). Furthermore, we anticipate the use of these back-action effects to prepare ultracold and quantum states of mechanical structures, which would not be accessible with existing technology.

Approaching the quantum limit of a nanomechanical resonator.

By coupling a single-electron transistor to a high-quality factor, 19.7-megahertz nanomechanical resonator, we demonstrate position detection approaching that set by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle limit. At millikelvin temperatures, position resolution a factor of 4.3 above the quantum limit is achieved and demonstrates the near-ideal performance of the single-electron transistor as a linear amplifier. We have observed the resonator's thermal motion at temperatures as low as 56 millikelvin, with quantum occupation factors of NTH = 58. The implications of this experiment reach from the ultimate limits of force microscopy to qubit readout for quantum information devices.