Magnon-Photon-Phonon Entanglement in Cavity Magnomechanics

Nonreciprocal Optomechanical Entanglement against Backscattering Losses

We propose how to achieve nonreciprocal quantum entanglement of light and motion and reveal its counterintuitive robustness against random losses. We find that by splitting the counterpropagating lights of a spinning resonator via the Sagnac effect, photons and phonons can be entangled strongly in a chosen direction but fully uncorrelated in the other. This makes it possible both to realize quantum nonreciprocity even in the absence of any classical nonreciprocity and also to achieve significant entanglement revival against backscattering losses in practical devices. Our work provides a way to protect and engineer quantum resources by utilizing diverse nonreciprocal devices, for building noise-tolerant quantum processors, realizing chiral networks, and backaction-immune quantum sensors.

Magnon laser based on Brillouin light scattering

An analogous laser action of magnons has become a subject of interest, and it is crucial for the study of nonlinear magnons spintronics. In this Letter, we demonstrate the magnon laser behavior based on Brillouin light scattering in a ferrimagnetic insulator sphere, which supports optical whispering gallery modes and magnon resonances. We show that the excited magnon plays what has traditionally been the role of the Stokes wave and is coherently amplified during the Brillouin scattering process, making the magnon laser possible. Furthermore, the stimulating excited magnon number increasing exponentially with the input light power can be manipulated by adjusting the external magnetic field. In addition to providing insight into magneto-optical interaction, the study of the magnon laser action will help to develop novel, to the best of our knowledge, technologies for handling spin-wave excitations, and it could affect scientific fields beyond magnonics. Potential applications range from preparing coherent magnon sources to operating on-chip functional magnetic devices.

Probing magnon-magnon coupling in exchange coupled Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 /Permalloy bilayers with magneto-optical effects

We demonstrate the magnetically-induced transparency (MIT) effect in Y3 Fe5 O12 (YIG)/Permalloy (Py) coupled bilayers. The measurement is achieved via a heterodyne detection of the coupled magnetization dynamics using a single wavelength that probes the magneto-optical Kerr and Faraday effects of Py and YIG, respectively. Clear features of the MIT effect are evident from the deeply modulated ferromagnetic resonance of Py due to the perpendicular-standing-spin-wave of YIG. We develop a phenomenological model that nicely reproduces the experimental results including the induced amplitude and phase evolution caused by the magnon-magnon coupling. Our work offers a new route towards studying phase-resolved spin dynamics and hybrid magnonic systems.

Magnetostrictively Induced Stationary Entanglement between Two Microwave Fields

We present a scheme to entangle two microwave fields by using the nonlinear magnetostrictive interaction in a ferrimagnet. The magnetostrictive interaction enables the coupling between a magnon mode (spin wave) and a mechanical mode in the ferrimagnet, and the magnon mode simultaneously couples to two microwave cavity fields via the magnetic dipole interaction. The magnon-phonon coupling is enhanced by directly driving the ferrimagnet with a strong red-detuned microwave field, and the driving photons are scattered onto two sidebands induced by the mechanical motion. We show that two cavity fields can be prepared in a stationary entangled state if they are, respectively, resonant with two mechanical sidebands. The present scheme illustrates a new mechanism for creating entangled states of optical fields and enables potential applications in quantum information science and quantum tasks that require entangled microwave fields.

Magnon Accumulation in Chirally Coupled Magnets

We report strong chiral coupling between magnons and photons in microwave waveguides that contain chains of small magnets on special lines. Large magnon accumulations at one edge of the chain emerge when exciting the magnets by a phased antenna array. This mechanism holds the promise of new functionalities in nonlinear and quantum magnonics.

Steady Bell State Generation via Magnon-Photon Coupling

We show that parity-time (PT) symmetry can be spontaneously broken in the recently reported energy level attraction of magnons and cavity photons. In the PT-broken phase, the magnon and photon form a high-fidelity Bell state with maximum entanglement. This entanglement is steady and robust against the perturbation of the environment, which is in contrast to the general wisdom that expects instability of the hybridized state when the symmetry is broken. This anomaly is further understood by the compete of non-Hermitian evolution and particle number conservation of the hybrid system. As a comparison, neither PT-symmetry breaking nor steady magnon-photon entanglement is observed inside the normal level repulsion case. Our results may open an exciting window to utilize magnon-photon entanglement as a resource for quantum information science.

Nonreciprocal interference and coherent photon routing in a three-port optomechanical system

We study the interference between different weak signals in a three-port optomechanical system, which is achieved by coupling three cavity modes to the same mechanical mode. If one cavity serves as a control port and is perturbed continuously by a control signal, nonreciprocal interference can be observed when another signal is injected upon different target ports. In particular, we exhibit frequency-independent perfect blockade induced by the completely destructive interference over the full frequency domain. Moreover, coherent photon routing can be realized by perturbing all ports simultaneously, with which the synthetic signal only outputs from the desired port. We also reveal that the routing scheme can be extended to more-port optomechanical systems. The results in this paper may have potential applications for controlling light transport and quantum information processing.

Improving macroscopic entanglement with nonlocal mechanical squeezing

We report an efficient mechanism to generate mechanical entanglement in a two-cascaded cavity optomechanical system with optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) inside the two coupled cavities. We use the especially tuned OPAs to squeeze the hybrid mode composed of two mechanical modes, leading to strong macroscopic entanglement between the two movable mirrors. The squeezing parameter as well as the effective mechanical damping are both modulated by the OPA gains. The optimal degree of mechanical entanglement therefore depends on the balanced process between coherent hybrid mode squeezing and dissipation engineering. The mechanical entanglement is robust to strong cavity decay, going beyond simply resolved sideband regime, and is resistant to reasonable high thermal noise. The scheme provides an alternative way for generating strong macroscopic entanglement in cascaded optomechanical systems.

Generation and characterization of position-momentum entangled photon pairs in a hot atomic gas cell

Continuous-variable position-momentum entanglement (or Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entanglement) of two particles has played important roles in the fundamental study of quantum physics as well as in the progress of quantum information. In this paper, we propose a scheme to generate Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) position-momentum entangled photon pairs efficiently via spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) process in a hot rubidium gas cell. The EPR entanglement between the photon pair is measured and characterized by using the ghost interference and the ghost imaging method. Due to the simplicity of the experimental setup and the high photon pair generation rate, our EPR entangled photon source may has potential applications in quantum imaging, hyperentanglement preparation and atomic ensemble based quantum information processing and quantum communication protocols.

Phonon laser in a cavity magnomechanical system

Using phonons to simulate an optical two-level laser action has been the focus of research. We theoretically study phonon laser in a cavity magnomechanical system, which consist of a microwave cavity, a sphere of magnetic material and a uniform external bias magnetic field. This system can realize the phonon-magnon coupling and the cavity photon-magnon coupling via magnetostrictive interaction and magnetic dipole interaction respectively, the magnons are driven directly by a strong microwave field simultaneously. Frist, the intensity of driving magnetic field which can reach the threshold condition of phonon laser is given. Then, we demonstrate that the adjustable external magnetic field can be used as a good control method to the phonon laser. Compared with phonon laser in optomechanical systems, our scheme brings a new degree of freedom of manipulation. Finally, with the experimentally feasible parameters, threshold power in our scheme is close to the case of optomechanical systems. Our study may inspire the field of magnetically controlled phonon lasers.

Mechanical switch of photon blockade and photon-induced tunneling

We propose how to mechanically control photon blockade (PB) and photon-induced tunneling (PIT) in an optomechanical system. We show that single-photon blockade (1PB) and two-photon blockade (2PB) can emerge by tuning mechanical driving parameters. Moreover, by varying the strength of mechanical driving, PIT can be converted into 1PB or 2PB, or vice versa, with the constant optical frequency. We refer to this effect as PIT-1PB or PIT-2PB switch. In addition, the switch between 1PB and 2PB can also be realized with this strategy. This mechanical engineering of quantum optical effects can be understood from the shifts of energy levels induced by external mechanical pumping. Our results not only pave the way towards devising new schemes for quantum light switch but also, on a more fundamental level, could shed light on the nonclassicality of the few-photon states.

Magnetically controllable slow light based on magnetostrictive forces

The magnetostrictive effect provides an opportunity for exploring fundamental phenomena related to the phonon-magnon interaction. Here we show a tunable slow light in a cavity magnetomechanical system consisting of photon, magnon and phonon modes with a nonlinear phonon-magnon interaction, which originates from magnetostrictive forces. For a strong photon-magnon coupling strength, we can observe a transparency (absorption) window for the probe by placing a strong control field on the red (blue) detuned sideband of the hybridized modes, which are comprised of photons and magnons. In this work, we mainly show the characteristic changes in dispersion in the range of the transparency window. The value of group delay can be continuously adjusted by using different frequencies of magnon, which are determined by the external bias magnetic field and therefore can be conveniently tuned in a broad range. Both the intensity and the frequency of the control field have an influence on the transformation from subluminal to superluminal propagation and vice versa. Furthermore, one may achieve long-lived slow light (group delay of millisecond order) by enlarging the pump power. These results may find applications in information interconversion based on coherent coupling among photons, phonons and magnons.

Phase-mediated magnon chaos-order transition in cavity optomagnonics

Magnon as a quantized spin wave has attracted extensive attention in various fields of physics, such as magnon spintronics, microwave photonics, and cavity quantum electrodynamics. Here, we explore theoretically the magnon chaos-order transition in cavity optomagnonics, which still remains largely unexplored in this emerging field. We find that the evolution of magnon experiences the transition from order to period-doubling bifurcation and finally enters chaos by adjusting the microwave driving power. Different from normal chaos, the magnon chaos-order transition proposed here is phase mediated. Beyond their fundamental scientific significance, our results will contribute to the comprehension of nonlinear phenomena and chaos in optomagnonical systems, and may find applications in chaos-based secure communication.