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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Quantum backaction will be a limiting noise source in the next generation of gravitational wave interferometers, now being built. Optical forces play an important role in this limit, determining both the classical dynamics and the quantum noise properties of the instrument. I will review the origins of the quantum limit in opto-mechanical displacement sensing, and recent progress in the field of quantum opto-mechanics. I will discuss experiments in the optical trapping and cooling of macroscopic mirrors, and prospects for observing quantum effects, including cooling to the ground state of motion, squeezing, and entanglement, in gravitational wave detectors and related systems.
Host: Richard Hughes