Sound-based analogue of cavity quantum electrodynamics in silicon.

A quantum mechanical superposition of a long-lived, localized phonon and a matter excitation is described. We identify a realization in strained silicon: a low-lying donor transition (P or Li) driven solely by acoustic phonons at wavelengths where high-Q phonon cavities can be built. This phonon-matter resonance is shown to enter the strongly coupled regime where the "vacuum" Rabi frequency exceeds the spontaneous phonon emission into noncavity modes, phonon leakage from the cavity, and phonon anharmonicity and scattering. We introduce a micropillar distributed Bragg reflector Si/Ge cavity, where Q≃10(5)-10(6) and mode volumes V≲25λ(3) are reachable. These results indicate that single or many-body devices based on these systems are experimentally realizable.

Strong field interactions between a nanomagnet and a photonic cavity.

We analyze the interaction of a nanomagnet (ferromagnetic) with a single photonic mode of a cavity in a fully quantum-mechanical treatment and find that exceptionally large quantum-coherent magnet-photon coupling can be achieved. Coupling terms in excess of several THz are predicted to be achievable in a spherical cavity of approximately 1 mm radius with a nanomagnet of approximately 100 nm radius and ferromagnetic resonance frequency of approximately 200 GHz. Eigenstates of the magnet-photon system correspond to entangled states of spin orientation and photon number, in which over 10{5} values of each quantum number are represented; conversely, initial (coherent) states of definite spin and photon number evolve dynamically to produce large oscillations in the microwave power (and nanomagnet spin orientation), and are characterized by exceptionally long dephasing times.