Adding or subtracting single quanta of sound

Science Daily  January 25, 2021
An international team of researchers (UK, Denmark, Australia) injected laser light into a crystalline microresonator that supports both the light and the high-frequency sound waves. The two types of waves coupled to one another via an electromagnetic interaction creates light at a new frequency. To subtract a single phonon, the team detected a single photon that has been up shifted in frequency. Detecting a single photon indicates that a subtracted single phonon. When the experiment is performed at a finite temperature, the sound field has random fluctuations from thermal noise. Counterintuitively, when you subtract a single phonon, the average number of phonons goes up to 2n. This result does not violate energy conservation and comes about due to the statistics of thermal phonons. The findings aid the development of future quantum technologies, such as hardware components in a future ‘quantum internet’ and help pave the way for tests of quantum mechanics on a more macroscopic scale and optomechanical quantum science and applications…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE

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