AREA Exam - Lucy Yu

Optomechanical systems have emerged in recent years for applications in quantum communication and for their potential in demonstrating quantum phenomenon in macroscopic objects, paving the way for fundamental studies such as gravitational decoherence mechanism. We propose here to generate and verify a quantum non-gaussian state of the mechanical motion in a fiber-based Fabry-Perot cavity filled with superfluid helium. Low optical and acoustic damping in liquid helium is ideal for making an optomechanical system with high quantum cooperativity which is scalable in size and mass. Preliminary results on sideband generation and asymmetry measurements are presented here, with discussion on how the current photon counting scheme will be adapted for future photon-phonon correlation measurement to study statistics of a weakly dissipated thermal state and a single phonon Fock state.