@article{798, abstract = {Nonreciprocal circuit elements form an integral part of modern measurement and communication systems. Mathematically they require breaking of time-reversal symmetry, typically achieved using magnetic materials and more recently using the quantum Hall effect, parametric permittivity modulation or Josephson nonlinearities. Here we demonstrate an on-chip magnetic-free circulator based on reservoir-engineered electromechanic interactions. Directional circulation is achieved with controlled phase-sensitive interference of six distinct electro-mechanical signal conversion paths. The presented circulator is compact, its silicon-on-insulator platform is compatible with both superconducting qubits and silicon photonics, and its noise performance is close to the quantum limit. With a high dynamic range, a tunable bandwidth of up to 30 MHz and an in situ reconfigurability as beam splitter or wavelength converter, it could pave the way for superconducting qubit processors with multiplexed on-chip signal processing and readout.}, author = {Barzanjeh, Shabir and Wulf, Matthias and Peruzzo, Matilda and Kalaee, Mahmoud and Dieterle, Paul and Painter, Oskar and Fink, Johannes M}, issn = {20411723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {1}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{Mechanical on chip microwave circulator}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-017-01304-x}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, } @article{1013, abstract = {From microwave ovens to satellite television to the GPS and data services on our mobile phones, microwave technology is everywhere today. But one technology that has so far failed to prove its worth in this wavelength regime is quantum communication that uses the states of single photons as information carriers. This is because single microwave photons, as opposed to classical microwave signals, are extremely vulnerable to noise from thermal excitations in the channels through which they travel. Two new independent studies, one by Ze-Liang Xiang at Technische Universität Wien (Vienna), Austria, and colleagues [1] and another by Benoît Vermersch at the University of Innsbruck, also in Austria, and colleagues [2] now describe a theoretical protocol for microwave quantum communication that is resilient to thermal and other types of noise. Their approach could become a powerful technique to establish fast links between superconducting data processors in a future all-microwave quantum network.}, author = {Fink, Johannes M}, journal = {Physics}, number = {32}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Viewpoint: Microwave quantum states beat the heat}}, doi = {10.1103/Physics.10.32}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, } @article{1020, abstract = {Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth. Cellulose fibers, such as the one extracted form cotton or woodpulp, have been used by humankind for hundreds of years to make textiles and paper. Here we show how, by engineering light-matter interaction, we can optimize light scattering using exclusively cellulose nanocrystals. The produced material is sustainable, biocompatible, and when compared to ordinary microfiber-based paper, it shows enhanced scattering strength (×4), yielding a transport mean free path as low as 3.5 μm in the visible light range. The experimental results are in a good agreement with the theoretical predictions obtained with a diffusive model for light propagation.}, author = {Caixeiro, Soraya and Peruzzo, Matilda and Onelli, Olimpia and Vignolini, Silvia and Sapienza, Riccardo}, issn = {19448244}, journal = {ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces}, number = {9}, pages = {7885 -- 7890}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Disordered cellulose based nanostructures for enhanced light scattering}}, doi = {10.1021/acsami.6b15986}, volume = {9}, year = {2017}, } @article{1114, abstract = {Nonequilibrium phase transitions exist in damped-driven open quantum systems when the continuous tuning of an external parameter leads to a transition between two robust steady states. In second-order transitions this change is abrupt at a critical point, whereas in first-order transitions the two phases can coexist in a critical hysteresis domain. Here, we report the observation of a first-order dissipative quantum phase transition in a driven circuit quantum electrodynamics system. It takes place when the photon blockade of the driven cavity-atom system is broken by increasing the drive power. The observed experimental signature is a bimodal phase space distribution with varying weights controlled by the drive strength. Our measurements show an improved stabilization of the classical attractors up to the millisecond range when the size of the quantum system is increased from one to three artificial atoms. The formation of such robust pointer states could be used for new quantum measurement schemes or to investigate multiphoton phases of finite-size, nonlinear, open quantum systems.}, author = {Fink, Johannes M and Dombi, András and Vukics, András and Wallraff, Andreas and Domokos, Peter}, issn = {21603308}, journal = {Physical Review X}, number = {1}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Observation of the photon blockade breakdown phase transition}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevX.7.011012}, volume = {7}, year = {2017}, } @inproceedings{485, abstract = {We present results on nonlinear electro-optical conversion of microwave radiation into the optical telecommunication band with more than 0.1% photon number conversion efficiency with MHz bandwidth, in a crystalline whispering gallery mode resonator}, author = {Rueda Sanchez, Alfredo R and Sedlmeir, Florian and Collodo, Michele and Vogl, Ulrich and Stiller, Birgit and Schunk, Gerhard and Strekalov, Dmitry and Marquardt, Christoph and Fink, Johannes M and Painter, Oskar and Leuchs, Gerd and Schwefel, Harald}, booktitle = {Optics InfoBase Conference Papers}, isbn = {978-155752820-9}, location = {Waikoloa, HI, United States}, publisher = {Optica Publishing Group}, title = {{Single sideband microwave to optical photon conversion-an-electro-optic-realization}}, doi = {10.1364/NLO.2017.NM3A.1}, volume = {F54}, year = {2017}, } @article{1246, abstract = {Near-field imaging is a powerful tool to investigate the complex structure of light at the nanoscale. Recent advances in near-field imaging have indicated the possibility for the complete reconstruction of both electric and magnetic components of the evanescent field. Here we study the electro-magnetic field structure of surface plasmon polariton waves propagating along subwavelength gold nanowires by performing phase- and polarization-resolved near-field microscopy in collection mode. By applying the optical reciprocity theorem, we describe the signal collected by the probe as an overlap integral of the nanowire's evanescent field and the probe's response function. As a result, we find that the probe's sensitivity to the magnetic field is approximately equal to its sensitivity to the electric field. Through rigorous modeling of the nanowire mode as well as the aperture probe response function, we obtain a good agreement between experimentally measured signals and a numerical model. Our findings provide a better understanding of aperture-based near-field imaging of the nanoscopic plasmonic and photonic structures and are helpful for the interpretation of future near-field experiments.}, author = {Kabakova, Irina and De Hoogh, Anouk and Van Der Wel, Ruben and Wulf, Matthias and Le Feber, Boris and Kuipers, Laurens}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{Imaging of electric and magnetic fields near plasmonic nanowires}}, doi = {10.1038/srep22665}, volume = {6}, year = {2016}, } @article{1263, abstract = {Linking classical microwave electrical circuits to the optical telecommunication band is at the core of modern communication. Future quantum information networks will require coherent microwave-to-optical conversion to link electronic quantum processors and memories via low-loss optical telecommunication networks. Efficient conversion can be achieved with electro-optical modulators operating at the single microwave photon level. In the standard electro-optic modulation scheme, this is impossible because both up- and down-converted sidebands are necessarily present. Here, we demonstrate true single-sideband up- or down-conversion in a triply resonant whispering gallery mode resonator by explicitly addressing modes with asymmetric free spectral range. Compared to previous experiments, we show a 3 orders of magnitude improvement of the electro-optical conversion efficiency, reaching 0.1% photon number conversion for a 10 GHz microwave tone at 0.42 mW of optical pump power. The presented scheme is fully compatible with existing superconducting 3D circuit quantum electrodynamics technology and can be used for nonclassical state conversion and communication. Our conversion bandwidth is larger than 1 MHz and is not fundamentally limited.}, author = {Rueda, Alfredo and Sedlmeir, Florian and Collodo, Michele and Vogl, Ulrich and Stiller, Birgit and Schunk, Gerhard and Strekalov, Dmitry and Marquardt, Christoph and Fink, Johannes M and Painter, Oskar and Leuchs, Gerd and Schwefel, Harald}, journal = {Optica}, number = {6}, pages = {597 -- 604}, publisher = {Optica Publishing Group}, title = {{Efficient microwave to optical photon conversion: An electro-optical realization}}, doi = {10.1364/OPTICA.3.000597}, volume = {3}, year = {2016}, } @article{1339, abstract = {We present a microelectromechanical system, in which a silicon beam is attached to a comb-drive actuator, which is used to tune the tension in the silicon beam and thus its resonance frequency. By measuring the resonance frequencies of the system, we show that the comb-drive actuator and the silicon beam behave as two strongly coupled resonators. Interestingly, the effective coupling rate (1.5 MHz) is tunable with the comb-drive actuator (10%) as well as with a side-gate (10%) placed close to the silicon beam. In contrast, the effective spring constant of the system is insensitive to either of them and changes only by 60.5%. Finally, we show that the comb-drive actuator can be used to switch between different coupling rates with a frequency of at least 10 kHz. }, author = {Verbiest, Gerard and Xu, Duo and Goldsche, Matthias and Khodkov, Timofiy and Barzanjeh, Shabir and Von Den Driesch, Nils and Buca, Dan and Stampfer, Christoph}, journal = {Applied Physics Letter}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, title = {{Tunable mechanical coupling between driven microelectromechanical resonators}}, doi = {10.1063/1.4964122}, volume = {109}, year = {2016}, } @article{1354, abstract = {Fabrication processes involving anhydrous hydrofluoric vapor etching are developed to create high-Q aluminum superconducting microwave resonators on free-standing silicon membranes formed from a silicon-on-insulator wafer. Using this fabrication process, a high-impedance 8.9-GHz coil resonator is coupled capacitively with a large participation ratio to a 9.7-MHz micromechanical resonator. Two-tone microwave spectroscopy and radiation pressure backaction are used to characterize the coupled system in a dilution refrigerator down to temperatures of Tf=11  mK, yielding a measured electromechanical vacuum coupling rate of g0/2π=24.6  Hz and a mechanical resonator Q factor of Qm=1.7×107. Microwave backaction cooling of the mechanical resonator is also studied, with a minimum phonon occupancy of nm≈16 phonons being realized at an elevated fridge temperature of Tf=211  mK.}, author = {Dieterle, Paul and Kalaee, Mahmoud and Fink, Johannes M and Painter, Oskar}, journal = {Physical Review Applied}, number = {1}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Superconducting cavity electromechanics on a silicon-on-insulator platform}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.014013}, volume = {6}, year = {2016}, } @article{1355, abstract = {Radiation pressure has recently been used to effectively couple the quantum motion of mechanical elements to the fields of optical or microwave light. Integration of all three degrees of freedom—mechanical, optical and microwave—would enable a quantum interconnect between microwave and optical quantum systems. We present a platform based on silicon nitride nanomembranes for integrating superconducting microwave circuits with planar acoustic and optical devices such as phononic and photonic crystals. Using planar capacitors with vacuum gaps of 60 nm and spiral inductor coils of micron pitch we realize microwave resonant circuits with large electromechanical coupling to planar acoustic structures of nanoscale dimensions and femtoFarad motional capacitance. Using this enhanced coupling, we demonstrate microwave backaction cooling of the 4.48 MHz mechanical resonance of a nanobeam to an occupancy as low as 0.32. These results indicate the viability of silicon nitride nanomembranes as an all-in-one substrate for quantum electro-opto-mechanical experiments.}, author = {Fink, Johannes M and Kalaee, Mahmoud and Pitanti, Alessandro and Norte, Richard and Heinzle, Lukas and Davanço, Marcelo and Srinivasan, Kartik and Painter, Oskar}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{Quantum electromechanics on silicon nitride nanomembranes}}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms12396}, volume = {7}, year = {2016}, } @article{1370, abstract = {We study coherent phonon oscillations and tunneling between two coupled nonlinear nanomechanical resonators. We show that the coupling between two nanomechanical resonators creates an effective phonon Josephson junction, which exhibits two different dynamical behaviors: Josephson oscillation (phonon-Rabi oscillation) and macroscopic self-trapping (phonon blockade). Self-trapping originates from mechanical nonlinearities, meaning that when the nonlinearity exceeds its critical value, the energy exchange between the two resonators is suppressed, and phonon Josephson oscillations between them are completely blocked. An effective classical Hamiltonian for the phonon Josephson junction is derived and its mean-field dynamics is studied in phase space. Finally, we study the phonon-phonon coherence quantified by the mean fringe visibility, and show that the interaction between the two resonators may lead to the loss of coherence in the phononic junction.}, author = {Barzanjeh, Shabir and Vitali, David}, journal = {Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics}, number = {3}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Phonon Josephson junction with nanomechanical resonators}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.93.033846}, volume = {93}, year = {2016}, } @article{1429, abstract = {Solitons are localized waves formed by a balance of focusing and defocusing effects. These nonlinear waves exist in diverse forms of matter yet exhibit similar properties including stability, periodic recurrence and particle-like trajectories. One important property is soliton fission, a process by which an energetic higher-order soliton breaks apart due to dispersive or nonlinear perturbations. Here we demonstrate through both experiment and theory that nonlinear photocarrier generation can induce soliton fission. Using near-field measurements, we directly observe the nonlinear spatial and temporal evolution of optical pulses in situ in a nanophotonic semiconductor waveguide. We develop an analytic formalism describing the free-carrier dispersion (FCD) perturbation and show the experiment exceeds the minimum threshold by an order of magnitude. We confirm these observations with a numerical nonlinear Schrödinger equation model. These results provide a fundamental explanation and physical scaling of optical pulse evolution in free-carrier media and could enable improved supercontinuum sources in gas based and integrated semiconductor waveguides.}, author = {Husko, Chad and Wulf, Matthias and Lefrançois, Simon and Combrié, Sylvain and Lehoucq, Gaëlle and De Rossi, Alfredo and Eggleton, Benjamin and Kuipers, Laurens}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {{Free-carrier-induced soliton fission unveiled by in situ measurements in nanophotonic waveguides}}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms11332}, volume = {7}, year = {2016}, } @inproceedings{1115, abstract = {We present a coherent microwave to telecom signal converter based on the electro-optical effect using a crystalline WGM-resonator coupled to a 3D microwave cavity, achieving high photon conversion efficiency of 0.1% with MHz bandwidth.}, author = {Rueda, Alfredo and Sedlmeir, Florian and Collodo, Michele and Vogl, Ulrich and Stiller, Birgit and Schunk, Georg and Strekalov, Dimitry and Marquardt, Christoph and Fink, Johannes M and Painter, Oskar and Leuchs, Gerd and Schwefel, Harald}, location = {San Jose, CA, USA}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Efficient single sideband microwave to optical conversion using a LiNbO₃ WGM-resonator}}, doi = {10.1364/CLEO_SI.2016.SF2G.3}, year = {2016}, } @article{1206, abstract = {We study a polar molecule immersed in a superfluid environment, such as a helium nanodroplet or a Bose–Einstein condensate, in the presence of a strong electrostatic field. We show that coupling of the molecular pendular motion, induced by the field, to the fluctuating bath leads to formation of pendulons—spherical harmonic librators dressed by a field of many-particle excitations. We study the behavior of the pendulon in a broad range of molecule–bath and molecule–field interaction strengths, and reveal that its spectrum features a series of instabilities which are absent in the field-free case of the angulon quasiparticle. Furthermore, we show that an external field allows to fine-tune the positions of these instabilities in the molecular rotational spectrum. This opens the door to detailed experimental studies of redistribution of orbital angular momentum in many-particle systems. © 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim}, author = {Redchenko, Elena and Lemeshko, Mikhail}, journal = {ChemPhysChem}, number = {22}, pages = {3649 -- 3654}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, title = {{Libration of strongly oriented polar molecules inside a superfluid}}, doi = {10.1002/cphc.201601042}, volume = {17}, year = {2016}, } @inproceedings{482, abstract = {Nonlinear electro-optical conversion of microwave radiation into the optical telecommunication band is achieved within a crystalline whispering gallery mode resonator, reaching 0.1% photon number conversion efficiency with MHz bandwidth.}, author = {Rueda, Alfredo and Sedlmeir, Florian and Collodo, Michele and Vogl, Ulrich and Stiller, Birgit and Schunk, Gerhard and Strekalov, Dmitry and Marquardt, Christoph and Fink, Johannes M and Painter, Oskar and Leuchs, Gerd and Schwefel, Harald}, location = {Sydney, Australia}, publisher = {Optica Publishing Group}, title = {{Nonlinear single sideband microwave to optical conversion using an electro-optic WGM-resonator}}, doi = {10.1364/NP.2016.NTh3A.6}, year = {2016}, }