IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar

Abstract: Electro-mechanical systems offer a unique advantage to probe quantum noise properties in macroscopic mechanical devices, properties which ultimately stem from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.  A simple example of this is expected to occur in a microwave parametric transducer, composed of a superconducting microwave resonator fabricated with a flexible suspended capacitor gate, where mechanical motion of the gate generates motional sidebands corresponding to the up and down frequency conversion of microwave photons. Due to quantum vacuum noise, the rates of these processes are expected to be unequal. We measure this fundamental imbalance in a microwave transducer coupled to a radio-frequency mechanical mode, cooled near the ground state of motion.

In the first part of this talk, I will provide a brief introduction to opto- and electro-mechanical devices, and also touch briefly on how control of back-action forces allows for preparation of mechanical motion in the quantum regime.

In the second part of this talk, I will cover the fabrication and measurement techniques used in recent measurements of asymmetric motional noise.