TY - JOUR
T1 - Direct measurement of optical-trap-induced decoherence
AU - Matsumoto, Nobuyuki
AU - Komori, Kentaro
AU - Ito, Sosuke
AU - Michimura, Yuta
AU - Aso, Yoichi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Mark Sadgrove for help with the manuscript and stimulating discussions. This work was supported by PRESTO, JST, JSPS KAKENHI Grants No. 15617498 and No. 15617499, NINS (National Institutes of Natural Sciences) Program for Cross-Disciplinary Study, Matsuo Academic Foundation, and the Grants-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows No. 15J07404.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Physical Society.
PY - 2016/9/13
Y1 - 2016/9/13
N2 - Thermal decoherence is a major obstacle to the realization of quantum coherence for massive mechanical oscillators. Although optical trapping has been used to reduce the thermal decoherence rate for such oscillators, it also increases the rate by subjecting the oscillator to stochastic forces resulting from the frequency fluctuations of the optical field, thereby setting a fundamental limit on the reduction. This is analogous to the noise penalty in an active feedback system. Here, we directly measure the rethermalization process for an initially cooled and optically trapped suspended mirror, and identify the current limiting decoherence rate as due to the optical trap. Our experimental study of the trap-induced decoherence rate will enable future advances in the probing of fundamental quantum mechanics in the bad-cavity regime, such as testing of deformed commutators.
AB - Thermal decoherence is a major obstacle to the realization of quantum coherence for massive mechanical oscillators. Although optical trapping has been used to reduce the thermal decoherence rate for such oscillators, it also increases the rate by subjecting the oscillator to stochastic forces resulting from the frequency fluctuations of the optical field, thereby setting a fundamental limit on the reduction. This is analogous to the noise penalty in an active feedback system. Here, we directly measure the rethermalization process for an initially cooled and optically trapped suspended mirror, and identify the current limiting decoherence rate as due to the optical trap. Our experimental study of the trap-induced decoherence rate will enable future advances in the probing of fundamental quantum mechanics in the bad-cavity regime, such as testing of deformed commutators.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.94.033822
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevA.94.033822
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84989247318
VL - 94
JO - Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
JF - Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
SN - 1050-2947
IS - 3
M1 - 033822
ER -