Qubit-Coupled Mechanics – Matt LaHaye

Date: Mon. October 22nd, 2012, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm
Location: Rockefeller 221

There is a rapidly growing effort to integrate quantum technologies with mechanical structures in order to manipulate and measure quantum states of mechanics for applications ranging from quantum computing to sensing of weak forces to fundamental explorations of quantum mechanics at massive scales. A central focus of this effort, informally dubbed quantum electromechanical systems, has been the integration of superconducting electronics as control and measurement elements in nano and microelectromechanical systems (NEMS and MEMS). In fact, in just the last few years, spectacular advancements have been made in this area, providing researchers with a suite of tools for preparing, manipulating and measuring NEMS and MEMS near and even in the quantum domain. In my lecture, I will highlight the state-of-the-art of this exciting and nascent field, focusing in particular on recent work my colleagues and I have been engaged in to develop one such quantum electromechanical tool: the qubit-coupled mechanical resonator. I will discuss how qubit-coupled mechanical resonators are in many ways formally analogous to systems in cavity quantum electrodynamics that have been used for studying the quantum nature of light; and I will thus outline how qubit-coupled mechanics will similarly be an important test-bed for studying the quantum nature of mechanical structures.