Quantum superpositions and decoherence of nanomechanical rotors
Final Report Abstract
Within this project we developed experimentally realistic schemes for creating orientational quantum superpositions of nanomechanical rotors, and for assessing the impact of imperfect state preparation, of nanoparticle shape asymmetries, of external torques, and of environmental decoherence on their quantum state of rotation. Semiclassical approximation methods were devised to cope with the huge, numerically intractable number of angular momentum states occupied in these systems. Specifically, we proposed an experiment for observing orientational revivals of silicon nanorods and carbon nanotubes, which would allow probing the quantum mechanical superposition principle at unprecedented scales of macroscopicity. We also devised an interferometric scheme to control the three-dimensional orientation of nanorotors, allowing them to be prepared in arbitrary superpositions of a fully aligned and a completely anti-aligned state.
Publications
-
Probing macroscopic quantum superpositions with nanorotors. New Journal of Physics, 20(12), 122001.
Stickler, Benjamin A; Papendell, Birthe; Kuhn, Stefan; Schrinski, Björn; Millen, James; Arndt, Markus & Hornberger, Klaus
-
Quantum rotations of nanoparticles. Nature Reviews Physics, 3(8), 589-597.
Stickler, Benjamin A.; Hornberger, Klaus & Kim, M. S.
-
Interferometric control of nanorotor alignment. Physical Review A, 105(2).
Schrinski, Birthe; Stickler, Benjamin A. & Hornberger, Klaus
-
Thermalization of the quantum planar rotor with external potentially
B. Schrinski, Y Chan, and B. Schrinski
