arXiv subjects

Thomas M. Karg

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas M. Karg.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Absorption loss and Kerr nonlinearity in barium titanate waveguides

Because of its exceptionally large Pockels coefficient, barium titanate (BaTiO$_3$) is a promising material for various photonic applications at both room and cryogenic temperatures, including electro-optic modulation, frequency comb generation, and microwave-optical transduction. These applications rely on devices with low optical loss to achieve high efficiency. Material absorption sets a lower limit to optical loss and is thus a crucial property to determine, particularly for integrated photonic devices. Using cavity-enhanced photothermal spectroscopy, we measure the absorption loss of BaTiO$_3$ ridge waveguides at wavelengths near 1550~nm to be $α_{\mathrm{abs}} = 10.9$~{\raisebox{0.5ex}{\tiny$^{+5.8}_{-0.4}$}} dB~m$^{-1}$, well below the propagation losses due to other sources, such as scattering. We simultaneously determine that BaTiO$_3$ has a large Kerr nonlinear refractive index of $n_{\mathrm{2,BaTiO_3}}$ = 1.8 {\raisebox{0.5ex}{\tiny$^{+0.3}_{-0.3}$}} $\times$ 10$^{-18}$ m$^2$ W$^{-1}$. Considering these results, photonic integrated circuits utilizing BaTiO$_3$ have the potential to achieve significantly higher efficiency than demonstrated to date and are especially interesting for applications exploiting the combination of Pockels and Kerr effects.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Bidirectional microwave-optical conversion with an integrated soft-ferroelectric barium titanate transducer

Efficient, low-noise, and high-bandwidth transduction between optical and microwave photons is key to long-range quantum communication between distant superconducting quantum processors. Recent demonstrations of microwave-optical transduction using the broadband direct electro-optic (Pockels) effect in optical thin films made of AlN or LiNbO$_3$ have shown promise. To improve efficiency and added noise, materials with larger Pockels coefficients, such as the soft ferroelectrics BaTiO$_3$ or SrTiO$_3$, are required. However, these materials require adapted designs and fabrication approaches due to their nonlinear and, in some cases, hysteretic electro-optic response. Here, we engineer an on-chip, triply resonant transducer comprising low-loss BaTiO$_3$-on-SiO$_2$ waveguides monolithically integrated with a superconducting microwave resonator made of Nb. We demonstrate bidirectional microwave-optical transduction and reach total off-chip efficiencies of $1\times10^{-6}$ using pulsed pumping. Our novel device concept permits in-situ poling of the ferroelectric material without introducing excess microwave loss, using a fully subtractive fabrication process with superconducting air bridges. In addition, we investigate optically induced heating, revealing fast thermalization and quasiparticle resilience of the microwave resonator. Our transducer concept and fabrication process are applicable to other materials with a large bias-induced Pockels effect and pave the way for efficient, low-power quantum interconnects.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Optical coherent feedback control of a mechanical oscillator

Feedback is a powerful and ubiquitous technique both in classical and quantum system control. Its standard implementation relies on measuring the state of a system, processing the classical signal, and feeding it back to the system. In quantum physics, however, measurements not only read out the state of the system but also modify it irreversibly. Coherent feedback is a different kind of feedback that coherently processes and feeds back quantum signals without actually measuring the system. Here, we report on the experimental realization and the theoretical analysis of an optical coherent feedback platform to control the motional state of a nanomechanical membrane in an optical cavity. The coherent feedback loop consists of a light field interacting twice with the same mechanical mode through different cavity modes, without {performing any} measurement. Tuning the optical phase and delay of the feedback loop allows us to control the motional state of the mechanical oscillator, its resonance frequency and also its damping rate, which we use to cool the membrane close to the quantum ground state. Our theoretical analysis provides the optimal cooling conditions, showing that this new technique enables ground-state cooling. Experimentally, we show that we can cool the membrane to a state with $\bar{n}_m = 4.89 \pm 0.14 $ phonons (${480}\,{μ\mathrm{K}}$) in a ${20}\,\mathrm{K}$ environment. This lies below the theoretical limit of cavity dynamical backaction cooling in the unresolved sideband regime and is achieved with only 1$\%$ of the optical power required for cavity cooling. Our feedback scheme is very versatile, offering new opportunities for quantum control in a variety of optomechanical systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Coherent feedback cooling of a nanomechanical membrane with atomic spins

Coherent feedback stabilises a system towards a target state without the need of a measurement, thus avoiding the quantum backaction inherent to measurements. Here, we employ optical coherent feedback to remotely cool a nanomechanical membrane using atomic spins as a controller. Direct manipulation of the atoms allows us to tune from strong-coupling to an overdamped regime. Making use of the full coherent control offered by our system, we perform spin-membrane state swaps combined with stroboscopic spin pumping to cool the membrane in a room-temperature environment to ${T}={216}\,\mathrm{mK}$ ($\bar{n}_{m} = 2.3\times 10^3$ phonons) in ${200}\,\mathrm{μs}$. We furthermore observe and study the effects of delayed feedback on the cooling performance. Starting from a cryogenically pre-cooled membrane, this method would enable cooling of the mechanical oscillator close to its quantum mechanical ground state and the preparation of nonclassical states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Light-mediated strong coupling between a mechanical oscillator and atomic spins one meter apart

Engineering strong interactions between quantum systems is essential for many phenomena of quantum physics and technology. Typically, strong coupling relies on short-range forces or on placing the systems in high-quality electromagnetic resonators, restricting the range of the coupling to small distances. We use a free-space laser beam to strongly couple a collective atomic spin and a micromechanical membrane over a distance of one meter in a room-temperature environment. The coupling is highly tunable and allows the observation of normal-mode splitting, coherent energy exchange oscillations, two-mode thermal noise squeezing and dissipative coupling. Our approach to engineer coherent long-distance interactions with light makes it possible to couple very different systems in a modular way, opening up a range of opportunities for quantum control and coherent feedback networks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Remote Hamiltonian Interactions Mediated by Light

We address a fundamental question of quantum optics: Can a beam of light mediate coherent Hamiltonian interactions between two distant quantum systems? This is an intriguing question whose answer is not a priori clear, since the light carries away information about the systems and might be subject to losses, giving rise to intrinsic decoherence channels associated with the coupling. Our answer is affirmative and we derive a particularly simple sufficient condition for the interactions to be Hamiltonian: The light field needs to interact twice with the systems and the second interaction has to be the time reversal of the first. We demonstrate that, even in the presence of significant optical loss, coherent interactions can be realized and generate substantial amounts of entanglement between the systems. Our method is directly applicable for building hybrid quantum systems, with relevant applications in the fields of optomechanics and atomic ensembles.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Optical transport and manipulation of an ultracold atomic cloud using focus-tunable lenses

We present an optical setup with focus-tunable lenses to dynamically control the waist and focus position of a laser beam, in which we transport a trapped ultracold cloud of 87-Rb over a distance of 28 cm. The scheme allows us to shift the focus position at constant waist, providing uniform trapping conditions over the full transport length. The fraction of atoms that are transported over the entire distance comes near to unity, while the heating of the cloud is in the range of a few microkelvin. We characterize the position stability of the focus and show that residual drift rates in focus position can be compensated for by counteracting with the tunable lenses. Beyond being a compact and robust scheme to transport ultracold atoms, the reported control of laser beams makes dynamic tailoring of trapping potentials possible. As an example, we steer the size of the atomic cloud by changing the waist size of the dipole beam.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗