Schrodinger cat states of a 16-microgram mechanical oscillator

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bild, Marius; Fadel, Matteo; Yang, Yu; von Lupke, Uwe; Martin, Phillip; Bruno, Alessandro; Chu, Yiwen
• 署名单位: Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-10070
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adf7553
• 发表日期: 2023-04-21
• 页码: 274-278
• 关键词: jaynes-cummings model; quantum-superposition; collapse; revival; atom

摘要

According to quantum mechanics, a physical system can be in any linear superposition of its possible states. Although the validity of this principle is routinely validated for microscopic systems, it is still unclear why we do not observe macroscopic objects to be in superpositions of states that can be distinguished by some classical property. Here we demonstrate the preparation of a mechanical resonator in Schrodinger cat states of motion, where the similar to 10(17) constituent atoms are in a superposition of two opposite-phase oscillations. We control the size and phase of the superpositions and investigate their decoherence dynamics. Our results offer the possibility of exploring the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds and may find applications in continuous-variable quantum information processing and metrology with mechanical resonators.