FLEET seminar. Quantum acoustics: Quantum mechanics with sound

zoom / ID 891 1515 8844  / passcode 12345

Prof. Andrew N Cleland, University of Chicago

Venue: Room G30, New Horizons Building, Monash University Clayton (followed by networking lunch). Please register your attendance in the form below to help us with catering arrangements.

Or Zoom – Meeting details will be sent once you have registered.

Phonons are the quantum particles of sound waves in solids, representing the collective motion of astronomical numbers of atoms. While initially, phonons served as a convenience for calculations of heat capacity, heat transport and scattering, developments in a relatively new field termed “quantum acoustics” have shown that phonons can in fact be used as carriers of quantum information, with properties very similar to photons, the quantum particles of light. I will describe some recent experiments my group has pursued, using surface acoustic waves controlled and detected by superconducting qubits. This combination has allowed the on-demand generation, storage, and detection of individual microwave-frequency phonons in an acoustic resonator; using phonons to transmit quantum states and generate quantum entanglement; demonstrating a single-phonon interferometer and a quantum information process known as “quantum erasure”; and most recently using phonons to demonstrate a fundamental quantum effect first seen with photons, the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, which beautifully illustrates the wave-particle duality fundamental to quantum mechanics.

Prof. Cleland is the John A. MacLean Sr professor of Molecular Engineering Innovation and Enterprise and Director of the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He was selected as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for 2017-18, and was an APS Kavli Lecturer in 2017.

Prof. Cleland’s research focuses on three areas: the application of superconducting circuits to quantum information, including both computation and communication; the development of nanoscale devices integrating electronic, mechanical, and optical fields, targeting quantum control and quantum measurement of mechanical, spin and optical degrees of freedom.

The Cleland group is developing superconducting, mechanical, and optomechanical structures for applications to quantum information.