Development of a Monolithic Quantum Optomechanics Platform

This project will develop a new generation of chip-scale quantum optomechanical devices that link light waves with tiny mechanical vibrations, enabling measurements of extremely small forces, displacements, and motion. Today’s most advanced quantum optomechanical systems often hinge on delicate, bespoke devices that are difficult to reproduce, scale, or deploy. This project will move quantum optomechanics toward a manufacturable platform by integrating low-loss optical circuits with long-lived acoustic resonators on a single chip. The resulting technology will advance fundamental knowledge of quantum measurement while laying groundwork for future sensors, quantum networks, transduction, and signal-processing devices. Potential long-term benefits include improved inertial navigation, structural and seismic monitoring, distributed acoustic sensing, and searches for new physics, all of which serve the national interest by promoting scientific discovery, strengthening future quantum technologies, and contributing to national security and economic competitiveness. The project will also create openly available quantum-optomechanics learning modules and cloud-accessible educational demonstrations to help train the next-generation quantum workforce. On the technical front, the project will develop a platform of monolithic high-overtone bulk acoustic resonators (HBAR) seamlessly integrated with photonic circuits in which ultra-low-loss silicon-nitride optical modes and high-quality-factor acoustic modes are co-designed, co-fabricated, and coherently controlled. The research is organized around three interwoven goals: fabrication and characterization of wafer-scale photonic-HBAR devices; development of quantum-noise-limited readout, cooling, squeezing, and feedback control of mechanical motion; and demonstration of functional modules for quantum-enhanced sensing and quantum networking. The project will benchmark optical, mechanical, and optomechanical performance; implement multimode readout near the standard quantum limit; pursue backaction-evading measurements and mechanically mediated entanglement to surpass classical sensing limits; and explore optomechanical storage interfaces that can buffer and retrieve optical quantum states. Collectively, these efforts will establish scalable building blocks for integrated quantum optomechanics and provide experimentally validated tools for quantum sensing, communication, and information processing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2609754 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Zheshen Zhang | Institution: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, ANN ARBOR, MI | Award Amount: $447,691 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2609754 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2609754.html