Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Feedback oscillators, such as lasers and masers, serve as time references in modern computing, communication, and measurement. Quantum fluctuations ultimately limit their phase stability and ability to keep time precisely; in the absence of quantum engineering, their phase stability is bounded by a standard quantum limit (SQL). Techniques to improve the frequency stability of feedback oscillators beyond the SQL have been theorized, but have not yet been demonstrated. We demonstrate an opto-electronic oscillator (OEO), a type of feedback oscillator, with phase stability approaching the SQL. We then engineer the OEO's quantum state to improve its phase stability, thereby demonstrating the essential principle quantum-enhancement of feedback oscillators. Similar techniques may be employed to evade the SQL in other feedback oscillators such as masers and lasers.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), Enrico Fermi Fellowships – Cross-training in theoretical and experimental fundamental science, G5957559208, Experimental Studies of the Quantum-Gravity Tension, CAREER: Macroscopic Quantum Measurement and Control to Probe Gravity, Quantum Optics and Optomechanics: From Fundamental Tests To Quantum Tools of the Future
OpenAlex ID: W7202201534
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