Speaker
Description
Entanglement is the essential resource that defines this new paradigm of quantum-enabled devices. Here I confirm the long-standing prediction that a parametrically driven mechanical oscillator can entangle electromagnetic fields. We observe stationary emission of path-entangled microwave radiation from a micro-machined silicon nanostring oscillator, squeezing the joint field operators of two thermal modes by 3.40(37)~dB below the vacuum level. This entanglement can be used to implement Quantum Illumination (a sensing technique) that employs entangled photons to boost the detection of low-reflectivity objects in environments with bright thermal noise. The promised advantage over classically correlated radiation is particularly evident at low signal photon flux, a feature that makes the protocol potentially useful for non-invasive biomedical scanning or low-power short-range radar detection. In this work, we experimentally simulate quantum illumination at microwave frequencies. We generate entangled fields using a Josephson parametric converter at millikelvin temperatures to illuminate a room-temperature object at a distance of 1 meter in a proof of principle radar setup.
