2020/04/29 by Thomas M. Karg, Baptiste Gouraud, Chun Tat Ngai +3
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.abb0328
24 pages, 9 figures
arxiv created 2020/04/29 · arxiv updated 2020/05/12
Engineering strong interactions between quantum systems is essential for many phenomena of quantum physics and technology. Typically, strong coupling relies on short-range forces or on placing the systems in high-quality electromagnetic resonators, restricting the range of the coupling to small distances. We use a free-space laser beam to strongly couple a collective atomic spin and a micromechanical membrane over a distance of one meter in a room-temperature environment. The coupling is highly tunable and allows the observation of normal-mode splitting, coherent energy exchange oscillations, two-mode thermal noise squeezing and dissipative coupling. Our approach to engineer coherent long-distance interactions with light makes it possible to couple very different systems in a modular way, opening up a range of opportunities for quantum control and coherent feedback networks.