Quantum correlations from a room-temperature optomechanical cavity.

Quantum mechanics places a fundamental limit on the precision of continuous measurements. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle dictates that as the precision of a measurement of an observable (for example, position) increases, back action creates increased uncertainty in the conjugate variable (for example, momentum). In interferometric gravitational-wave detectors, higher laser powers reduce the position uncertainty created by shot noise(the photon-counting error caused by the quantum nature of the laser) but necessarily do so at the expense of back action in the form of quantum radiation pressure noise (QRPN)1. Once at design sensitivity, the gravitational-wave detectors Advanced LIGO2, VIRGO3 and KAGRA4 will be limited by QRPN at frequencies between 10hertz and 100hertz. There exist several proposals to improve the sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors by mitigating QRPN5-10, but until now no platform has allowed for experimental tests of these ideas. Here we present a broadband measurement of QRPN at room temperature at frequencies relevant to gravitational-wave detectors. The noise spectrum obtained shows effects due to QRPN between about 2kilohertz and 100kilohertz, and the measured magnitude of QRPN agrees with our model. We now have a testbed for studying techniques with which to mitigate quantum back action, such as variational readout and squeezed light injection7, with the aim of improving the sensitivity of future gravitational-wave detectors.

Quantum mechanics dictates that a continuous measurement of the position of an object imposes a random quantum back-action (QBA) perturbation on its momentum. This randomness translates with time into position uncertainty, thus leading to the well known uncertainty on the measurement of motion. As a consequence of this randomness, and in accordance with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the QBA puts a limitation-the so-called standard quantum limit-on the precision of sensing of position, velocity and acceleration. Here we show that QBA on a macroscopic mechanical oscillator can be evaded if the measurement of motion is conducted in the reference frame of an atomic spin oscillator. The collective quantum measurement on this hybrid system of two distant and disparate oscillators is performed with light. The mechanical oscillator is a vibrational 'drum' mode of a millimetre-sized dielectric membrane, and the spin oscillator is an atomic ensemble in a magnetic field. The spin oriented along the field corresponds to an energetically inverted spin population and realizes a negative-effective-mass oscillator, while the opposite orientation corresponds to an oscillator with positive effective mass. The QBA is suppressed by -1.8 decibels in the negative-mass setting and enhanced by 2.4 decibels in the positive-mass case. This hybrid quantum system paves the way to entanglement generation and distant quantum communication between mechanical and spin systems and to sensing of force, motion and gravity beyond the standard quantum limit.

PurposeThe aerospace, energy and automotive industries have seen wide use of composite materials because of their excellent mechanical properties, along with the benefit of weight reduction savings. As such, the purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of the mechanical performance of these materials under extreme operational conditions characteristic of in-service environments.Design/methodology/approachThis study is novel in that it has evaluated the tensile performance and fracture response of additively manufactured continuous carbon fiber embedded in an onyx matrix (i.e. nylon with chopped carbon fiber) at cryogenic and room temperatures, for specimens manufactured with an angle between the specimen lying plane and the working build plane of 0°, 45° and 90°.FindingsResearch findings reveal enhanced tensile properties (i.e. ultimate tensile strength and modulus of elasticity) by the 0° (X) built specimens, as compared with the 45° (XZ45) and 90° (Z) built specimens at cryogenic temperature. A reduction in ductility is observed at cryogenic temperature for all build orientations. Fractographic analysis reveals the presence of fiber pullout/elongation, pores within the onyx matrix and chopped carbon fiber near fracture zone of the onyx matrix.Research limitations/implicationsResearch findings present tensile properties (i.e. ultimate tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and elongation%) for three-dimensional (3D)-printed onyx with and without reinforcing continuous carbon fiber composites at cryogenic and room temperatures. Reinforcement of continuous carbon fibers and reduction to cryogenic temperatures appears to result, in general, in an increase in the tensile strength and modulus of elasticity, with a reduction in elongation% as compared with the onyx matrix tensile performance reported at room temperature. Fracture analysis reveals continuous carbon fiber pull out for onyx–carbon fiber samples tested at room temperature and cryogenic temperatures, suggesting weak onyx matrix–continuous carbon fiber adhesion.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first study to report on the cryogenic tensile properties and fracture response exhibited by 3D-printed onyx–continuous carbon fiber composites. Evaluating the viability of common commercial 3D printing techniques in producing composite parts to withstand cryogenic temperatures is of critical import, for aerospace applications.

Broadband quantum back action evading measurements of a resonant force

The entanglement of macroscopic mechanical oscillators is always an interesting domain. How to entangle multiple mechanical oscillators is still not well answered. In this paper, we investigate the bipartite and tripartite quantum correlations among three distinct mechanical oscillators interacting with one cavity pumped by a multi-tone driving laser. Floquet cavity modes, resulting from different frequency components of the multi-tone driven cavity, are used to construct channels for quantum correlations between mechanical oscillators. By modulating the effective optomechanical coupling, we can manipulate the mechanical entanglement and EPR steering. The numerical results show that the two-tone driving widely employed is not enough to generate tripartite entanglement, while three- and four-tone driving can be employed to generate and enhance genuine tripartite entanglement. All bipartite entanglement can also be modulated. In addition, we demonstrate the monogamous relation of tripartite EPR steering and manipulate the asymmetry of steering. This work provides a method for manipulating the quantum correlation among multiple macroscopic objects.

In a nanomechanical resonator coupled to a quantum point contact, the back action of the electronic state on mechanical motion is studied. The quantum point contact conductance changing with subband index and the eigenfrequency of the resonator are found to correlate. A model is constructed explaining the frequency deviations by the variable ability of the quantum point contact to screen the piezoelectric charge induced by mechanical oscillations. The observed effects can be used to develop electromechanical methods for studying the density of states in quasi-one-dimensional systems.

In this work, 3% to 8% (in weight) of nanosize MgO particles was added to Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (Bi- 2212) high-temperature superconductor to fab-ricate Bi-2212 superconducting material with superior mechanical properties. The mechanical strength of the samples was studied by con-ducting the compression test at room tempera-ture, and the addition of 5% nanosize MgO par-ticles produced the highest strength when com- pared with other samples. The sample with 5% MgO addition also exhibited superior super-conducting properties. The Bi-2212 powder with 5% nanosize MgO addition was used to fabricate Bi-2212 tapes through the dip-coating-then- stacking method. The fully processed tapes were investigated via dc electrical resistance measurements, XRD patterns, SEM micrographs, transport critical current density and tensile tests. The tensile tests were conducted at room and cryogenic (77 K) temperatures. Results of tensile tests and Young’s modulus for the tapes showed that the Bi-2212 tapes with nanosize MgO addition recorded better mechanical prop-erty compared to the non-added samples both at room and cryogenic temperatures. The double- core tape with 5% MgO addition recorded the highest failure point at 160 MPa. In addition to the strengthening effect that was observed in the nanosize MgO added Bi-2212 superconduc-tor tapes, the superconducting properties re-mained intact in the tapes.

Dual heterogeneous structured medium-entropy alloys showing a superior strength-ductility synergy at cryogenic temperature

The effect of temperature was investigated on the consolidation of blended elemental powders of aluminum and copper by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). Aluminum and Copper powders (1:1% vol.) were blended and consolidated in a 90° ECAP die at room (RT) and cryogenic temperatures (CT - ~77 K). ECAP samples were pressed until 4 passes at room temperature in route Bc. As a reference, a sample was obtained by conventional uniaxial pressing. The obtained results indicated a much denser (>99.5%) and harder structure by cryogenic ECAP. The hardness after one pass at CT was comparable with 4 passes at room temperature. Tensile tests performed at CT for materials with similar chemical composition showed a simultaneous increase in strength and ductility at CT, corroborating the results obtained by ECAP. The partial suppression of dynamic recovery and the activation and the transition between deformation mechanisms at CT, as well as stacking fault energies (SFE) of such metals, played an important role in these results. Copper presented a much higher capability of strain hardening than aluminum, due to its lower SFE and much lower homologous temperature. X-ray diffraction indicated a strong correlation between the variation of average microstrain and the variation of hardness on both metals. The results of this study demonstrated the great potential of the application of very low temperatures for the obtaining of deformation metal-metal composites.

Lattice vibrations are the microscopic mechanism responsible for a large, if not dominant, contribution to heat transport in crystalline insulators. These vibrations are described in terms of phonons, collective excitations (or quasiparticles) in the form of waves of atomic displacements inside a crystal. Phonons are traditionally considered to be the quasiparticles responsible for carrying heat through the material. Heat transport is considered as a flux of a phonon gas, diffusing from hot areas (high phonon densities) to cold areas (low phonon densities) in an attempt to reestablish equilibrium, with phonon collisions being the source of heat flux dissipation. However, as dimensionality is reduced, the motion of phonons stimulated by temperature perturbations becomes correlated and this gas-like picture of thermal transport in terms of phonons becomes invalid. In this Thesis, we lay out an interpretation of thermal transport in 2D materials based on the Boltzmann transport equation in the form of collective excitations of phonons. These collective phonon excitations give raise to complex phenomena, such as high thermal conductivities, that are otherwise unexplained. As another example, collective excitations, at variance with conventional diffusive transport, can induce wave-like heat propagation, or second sound. This had been found only in a few exotic materials at cryogenic temperatures, but is present instead routinely in 2D materials at room temperature. The correlated-phonon description of heat transfer can be rationalised by introducing a new collective excitation, called 'relaxon', which is defined as the eigenstate of the collision operator. Whereas only oversimplifying assumptions endow phonons with well defined relaxation times (the average interval of time between collisions), relaxons have always well defined relaxation times and permit an exact description of thermal transport. The complex dynamic of heat transport in 2D is thus greatly simplified and a kinetic gas theory of thermal transport still applies, provided that the gas is not constituted by phonons, but by relaxons. Our work on thermal transport is part of a larger effort, aiming at the creation of a database of numerically computed properties of materials. The high-throughput production of simulated properties is a challenging task, since it necessitates the understanding of a physical model, but it also needs to face a myriad of technicalities and problems that hinder the execution of a large number of calculations. In order to allow the creation of computational materials databases, we developed AiiDA, an open-source automated interactive infrastructure and database for computational science. This platform tackles the problems of creation, management, analysis and sharing of data and simulations, summarized in the pillars of Automation, Data, Environment and Sharing. Automation is achieved by management of remote computational resources and the encoding of workflows, that allows the execution of complex sequences of calculations. The tight coupling between automation and data storage, handled by the platform, enables full reproducibility of the results and a suitable database design allows for efficient data analysis tools. Sharing of scientific knowledge is addressed by providing tools for distribution of data and of the underlying workflows that generated them, creating an ecosystem for computational materials science.

Plastic deformation and hardening mechanism of nuclear grade austenitic stainless steel, SUS316NG, at room and cryogenic temperatures were investigated using advanced indentation method and observations by transmission electron microscope (TEM). First, tensile and compressive pre-strains were applied at room temperature up to true strain values of 20%. Detailed indentation testing revealed that the strain hardening was detected when the indentation sizes were more than 50 μm, while it disappeared when the indentation size decreased down to 1 μm. This behavior was explained by the slip band size due to dislocation structure. Dual indenter method successfully predicted the stress-strain response of the pre-strained specimens. Second, Charpy impact tests were performed at room temperature and 77 K. The fracture toughness was sufficiently large at 77 K, however, ductility was slightly decreased compared with that at room temperature. Martensitic transformation was observed near the notch tip for the specimen tested at 77 K. This hardening was detectable by the indentation testing even if the indentation size was less than 1 μm.

Twinning Behavior of a Basal Textured Commercially Pure Titanium Alloy TA2 at Ambient and Cryogenic Temperatures

High-pressure torsion of titanium at cryogenic and room temperatures: Grain size effect on allotropic phase transformations

The performances of the diode-pumped CW and free running pulsed (Q-CW) 3-μm Er:YLF lasers, operating at room and cryogenic temperatures (RT and LNT), were compared theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that cryogenic cooling considerably enhances laser output power and efficiency in both modes of operation. On the other hand, our prediction for a Q-switched mode is that cryogenic performance can be so severely limited by amplified spontaneous emission (for some gain element designs) that the RT Q-switching may result in substantially higher pulse energies, albeit at lower efficiency.

A novel deep drawing process for aluminum alloy sheets at cryogenic temperatures