Helium Filled Cavity
Quantum optomechanics with a superfluid liquid Helium resonator
Since 2020 Jan, I have joined the Helium Filled Fiber Cavity Project with graduate students Jiaxin Yu (BA, Physics, Harvey Mudd ‘17), Sean Frazier (BA, Physics, Princeton ‘12) and postdoc Yogesh SS Patil (PhD, Cornell ‘18).
Light that is trapped in a cavity can interact strongly with the motion of a macroscopic object. This interaction provides a powerful means for developing quantum-enhanced sensors, studying quantum effects in massive systems, and searching for physics beyond the standard model. Leveraging unique properties of LHe, we explore these questions in devices whose mass ranges from nanograms to milligrams, and which are constructed from dielectric solids and superfluid helium.
The previous work of this versatile optomechanical system was realized by Jack Harris with Anya Kashnakova (PhD, Yale ‘18) and Alexey Shkarin (PhD, Yale ‘18), Charles Brown (PhD, Yale ‘19) and Glen Harris (PhD, U of Queensland ‘15). See the following papers for details:
- Shkarin, A. B., et al. “Quantum optomechanics in a liquid.” Physical review letters 122.15 (2019): 153601.
- Kashkanova, A. D., et al. “Optomechanics in superfluid helium coupled to a fiber-based cavity.” Journal of Optics 19.3 (2017): 034001.
- Kashkanova, A. D., et al. “Superfluid brillouin optomechanics.” Nature Physics 13.1 (2017): 74-79.
Based on this system, we are aiming to manipulate and to measure non-classical states of massive mechanical resonator (~ng mass) by the optomechanical interaction. See the our recent work along this approach:
- Patil, Yogesh SS, et al. “Measuring High-Order Phonon Correlations in an Optomechanical Resonator.” Physical Review Letters 128.18 (2022): 183601.
- Wang, Yiqi, et al. “Creation and Measurement of Quantum Coherent State in an Optomechanical Resonator” (In Preparation)
To further improve our experiment, we are upgrading our fiber cavity to a Macrocavity or a ring cavity to achieve a more massive and more quantum state.
