Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
Single phonon quantum acoustics with superfluid helium
Presented by Jack Harris Yale University
Quantum effects in acoustic degrees of freedom offer exciting opportunities in sensing, control, and information processing, as well as in studies of fundamental physics. To date, much progress in this field has been made with systems whose dynamics is essentially linear, including the realization of acoustic oscillators in their ground state or in squeezed states, and the observation of entanglement among acoustic and electromagnetic modes. However, these systems' linearity precludes access to "stronger" quantum effects that would offer true performance enhancement and tests of quantum mechanics in new regimes. One route to realizing nonlinear quantum acoustics is based on the back-action of single photon detectors. In this talk, I will describe our use of this approach to detect and control individual phonons in a nanogram-scale body of superfluid helium. I will also described the future prospects of superfluid-based quantum acoustic systems.
3:30 pm, Friday, November 6, 2020
Zoom,
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