Abstract
We provide a general quantum theory to describe the coupling of light with
the motion of a dielectric object inside a high finesse optical cavity. In
particular, we derive the total Hamiltonian of the system as well as a master
equation describing the state of the center of mass mode of the dielectric and
the cavity field mode. In addition, a quantum theory of elasticity is used in
order to study the coupling of the center of mass motion with internal
vibrational excitations of the dielectric. This general theory is applied to
the recent proposal of using an optically levitating nanodielectric as a cavity
optomechanical system Romero-Isart et al. NJP 12, 033015 (2010), Chang et al.
PNAS 107, 1005 (2010). On this basis, we also design a light-mechanics
interface to prepare non-Gaussian states of the mechanical motion, such as
quantum superpositions of Fock states. Finally, we introduce a direct
mechanical tomography scheme to probe these genuine quantum states by time of
flight experiments.
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