An optomechanical system consists of an optical cavity mode coupled
to a mode of a mechanical oscillator. Depending on the configuration of the
system, the optomechanical interaction can be used to drive or cool the
mechanical mode, coherently swap the optical and mechanical states, or create
entanglement.
A multimode optomechanical system consists of many optical (mechanical) modes
coupled to a mechanical (optical) mode. With the tools of the optomechanical
interaction, multimode optomechanical systems provide a rich platform to study
new physics and technologies. A central challenge in optomechanical systems
is to mitigate the effects of the thermal environment, which remains
significant even at cryogenic temperatures, for mechanical oscillators
typically used in optomechanical systems. The central theme of this thesis is
to study how the properties of multimode optomechanical systems can be used
for such mitigation of thermal noise.
The most straightforward extension of an optomechanical system to a multimode
system is to have a single optical mode couple to two mechanical modes, or a
single mechanical mode couple to two optical modes. In this thesis, we study
both types of multimode system. In each case, we study the formation of a
dark mode, an eigenstate of the three-mode system that is of particular
interest. When the system is in a dark state, the two modes of similar
character (optical or mechanical) interact with each other through the mode of
dissimilar character, but due to interference, the interaction becomes
decoupled from the properties of the dissimilar mode.
Another interesting application of the three-mode system is two-mode optical
entanglement, generated through mechanical motion. Such entanglement tends to
be sensitive to thermal noise. We propose a new method for generating
two-mode optical entanglement in the three-mode system that is robust against
the thermal environment of the mechanical mode.
Finally, we propose a novel, scalable architecture for a quantum computer.
The architecture makes use of the concepts developed earlier in the thesis,
and applies them to a system that on the surface looks quite different from
the standard optomechanical system, but is formally equivalent.
This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished coauthored
material.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uoregon.edu/oai:scholarsbank.uoregon.edu:1794/24186 |
| Date | 11 January 2019 |
| Creators | Kuzyk, Mark |
| Contributors | van Enk, Steven |
| Publisher | University of Oregon |
| Source Sets | University of Oregon |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Rights | All Rights Reserved. |
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