Paper detail

Quantum signature of a squeezed mechanical oscillator

Some predictions of quantum mechanics are in contrast with the macroscopic realm of everyday experience, in particular those originated by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, encoded in the non-commutativity of some measurable operators. Nonetheless, in the last decade opto-mechanical experiments have actualized macroscopic mechanical oscillators exhibiting such non-classical properties. A key indicator is the asymmetry in the strength of the motional sidebands generated in an electromagnetic field that measures interferometrically the oscillator position. This asymmetry is a footprint of the quantum motion of the oscillator, being originated by the non-commutativity between its ladder operators. A further step on the path highlighting the quantum physics of macroscopic systems is the realization of strongly non-classical states and the consequent observation of a distinct quantum behavior. Here we extend indeed the analysis to a squeezed state of a macroscopic mechanical oscillator embedded in an optical cavity, produced by parametric effect originated by a suitable combination of optical fields. The motional sidebands assume a peculiar shape, related to the modified system dynamics, with asymmetric features revealing and quantifying the quantum component of the squeezed oscillator motion.