Proposal for entangling remote micromechanical oscillators via optical measurements

Area of Science:

• Quantum physics
• Optomechanics
• Quantum information science

Background:

• Creating and verifying entanglement in macroscopic objects is a key challenge in quantum physics.
• Optomechanical systems offer a promising platform for exploring quantum phenomena with mechanical elements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a feasible experimental setup for generating and verifying entanglement between remote mechanical oscillators.
• To explore the potential of optomechanical interferometry for quantum state manipulation.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing an optomechanical interferometer with two coupled optical cavities and mechanical oscillators.
• Employing coherent driving and laser cooling to reach the quantum regime for the oscillators.
• Inducing entanglement via optical measurement and erasing which-path information by combining cavity outputs.

Main Results:

• The proposed experiment is feasible under weak optomechanical coupling conditions.
• Entanglement verification can be achieved by measuring the degrees of second-order coherence of the optical output.
• Simulations suggest entangled state lifetimes on the order of milliseconds for membrane-in-the-middle geometries.

Conclusions:

• The proposed optomechanical experiment provides a viable route to remote mechanical entanglement.
• This work contributes to the development of quantum technologies utilizing macroscopic quantum states.