Work

Nonlinear cooling and control of a mechanical quantum harmonic oscillator

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Nonlinearities are a key feature allowing nonclassical control of quantum harmonic oscillators. However, when nonlinearities are strong, designing protocols for control is often difficult, placing a barrier to exploiting these properties fully. In this work, using a single trapped-ion oscillator operated in the strongly nonlinear regime of the atom-light interaction, we show how to generate localized multi (two, three, four, and five)–component Schrödinger’s cat manifolds using a novel form of nonlinear reservoir engineering. We then specifically select Hamiltonians which allow us to perform measurements on these state manifolds. Our work demonstrates the experimental use of high-order nonlinear processes for control of nonclassical states of a quantum harmonic oscillator, opening up a new toolbox which can be applied to bosonic quantum error correction, computation, and sensing.

Source: Science Advances

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aee5380