Quantum amplification of mechanical oscillator motion

Abstract

Detection of the weakest forces in nature is aided by increasingly sensitive measurements of the motion of mechanical oscillators. However, the attainable knowledge of an oscillator's motion is limited by quantum fluctuations that exist even if the oscillator is in its lowest possible energy state. We demonstrate a technique for amplifying coherent displacements of a mechanical oscillator with initial magnitudes well below these zero-point fluctuations. When applying two orthogonal squeezing interactions, one before and one after a small displacement, the displacement is amplified, ideally with no added quantum noise. We implemented this protocol with a trapped-ion mechanical oscillator and determined an increase by a factor of up to 7.3 (±0.3) in sensitivity to small displacements.