A K-band integrated super-regenerative amplifier (SRA) in a 130nm SiGe BiCMOS technology is designed and characterized. The circuit is based on a novel stacked transistor differential cross-coupled oscillator topology, with a controllable tail current for quenching the oscillations. The fabricated integrated circuit (IC) occupies an area of 0.63mm2, and operates at the free-running center frequency of 25.3 GHz. Characterization results show circuit operation from a minimum input power level required for a phase coherent output as −110 dBm, and the input power level corresponding to the linear to logarithmic mode transition of −85 dBm, the lowest reported for K-band integrated logarithmic mode SRAs to date to the knowledge of the authors. The measured output power is 7.8dBm into a 100 differential load. The power consumption of the circuit is 110mW with no quench signal applied, and 38mW with 30 % duty cycle quenching. The quench waveform designed for the reported measurement result is also discussed.

Here, we present a novel torsion balance with a torsional spring that can reach a resolution in the nano-Newton range while allowing for a total experimental weight of 2 kg. The balance uses an off-the-shelf electromagnetic actuator, which was calibrated. The oscillation of the balance is damped using an adaptable eddy-current brake to fine-tune the damping factor. Experiments and electronics are controlled and powered through four coaxial liquid contacts. The balance is shown to be highly linear between 0.01 and 300 μN. After an automated post-processing, the noise of a measurement was 1.0 nN, and an applied force of 10 nN had a calculated error of 11.9%.

We investigate two different coupling schemes between a nano-scale mechanical resonator and one-electron atoms. In these schemes, classical electromagnetic radiation mediates a mutual communication between the mechanical resonator and the atoms. In the process it generates atomic coherences, quantum superpositions of excited electronic levels of the atoms. An atomic coherence is highly responsive to subtle variations in the relative frequencies of the levels participating in such superposition state. By exposing the atoms to electromagnetic radiation modulated by the motion of the mechanical resonator, we show how the response of an atomic coherence can, under appropriate conditions, be used to affect on demand the dynamical state of the mechanical resonator. The first scheme realizes a long range interface between a mechanical resonator and an ensemble of three-level atoms. Here, mechanically modulated electromagnetic radiation comes from a laser beam reflected off an oscillating mirror, the mechanical resonator. This light beam drives the transition between an excited level and a hyperfine sublevel of the atoms with a certain detuning. A weaker light beam resonantly couples to the transition between the excited level and another hyperfine sublevel. On full resonance, the atoms evolve into a stationary coherence of the above (non-absorbing) hyperfine sublevels only. The atoms then become transparent to the weaker light beam, in a phenomenon called electromagnetically induced transparency. Off resonance, we find that this transparency is modulated at the mirror frequency with some phase shift, which allows the weaker beam to cause resonant backaction onto the moving mirror. The strength of this backaction is enhanced near atomic resonances and its character can be switched between amplification or damping of mirror vibrations by adjusting the detuning. In contrast, the second scheme accomplishes a closer range interface between a torsion pendulum and guided two level Rydberg atoms. Attaching a point electric dipole to the torsion pendulum allows electromagnetic coupling to two Rydberg levels of a passing atom. This coupling modifies the eigenfrequencies of the Rydberg levels such that they become dependent on the phonon number of the torsion pendulum. Via Ramsey interferometry, we may readout this effect and thus measure the phonon number. We show that, by subjecting several atoms, one by one, to a Ramsey measurement, a quantum non-demolition detection of the phonon number is feasible. Likewise, we show coherent oscillator displacements possible, by driving the atoms with external fields while they interact with the torsion pendulum. We propose a protocol to reconstruct the quantum state of motion of the torsion pendulum, combining these two techniques, Ramsey measurements and oscillator displacements. Our interfaces between a mechanical resonator and atoms provide alternative routes for the control of the state of motion, ultimately quantum mechanical, of a mechanical resonator, in which the latter is not restricted to be part of a cavity. We will thus ease quantum dynamical manipulations of mechanical resonators of sub micron scales, for which an efficient design of cavity opto- and electro-mechanical systems is hard.