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Creating atom-nanoparticle quantum superpositions

Toroš, M; Bose, S; Barker, PF; (2021) Creating atom-nanoparticle quantum superpositions. Physical Review Research , 3 (3) , Article 033218. 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.033218. Green open access

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Abstract

A nanoscale object evidenced in a nonclassical state of its center of mass will hugely extend the boundaries of quantum mechanics. To obtain a practical scheme for the same, we exploit a hitherto unexplored coupled system: an atom and a nanoparticle coupled by an optical field. We show how to control the center of mass of a large ∼500-nm nanoparticle using the internal state of the atom so as to create, as well as detect, nonclassical motional states of the nanoparticle. Specifically, we consider a setup based on a silica nanoparticle coupled to a cesium atom and discuss a protocol for preparing and verifying a Schrödinger-cat state of the nanoparticle that does not require cooling to the motional ground state. We show that the existence of the superposition can be revealed using the Earth's gravitational field using a method that is insensitive to the most common sources of decoherence and works for any initial state of the nanoparticle.

Type: Article
Title: Creating atom-nanoparticle quantum superpositions
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.033218
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.033218
Language: English
Additional information: Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10135139
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