Quantum Behaviour in Systems with a Mechanical Element

Reaching the quantum regime in systems featuring macroscopic mechanical resonators is a current challenge that precedes the use of such systems to test fundamental physics. Mechanical resonators can be coupled to a wide range of systems such as LC-circuits, light inside an optical cavity, superconducting Josephson junctions, other mechanical resonators, spins in diamonds, and others. Such diverse possibilities provide an enormous set of distinct forms of interactions, and consequently physical phenomena.
In this talk, we address the problem of how to create quantum states of mechanical motion in optomechanical systems and what quantum phenomena can be observed in these systems for different types of interaction, namely the standard radiation pressure interaction and the dispersive coupling in a membrane-in-the-middle setup.