Experimental Speedup of Quantum Dynamics through Squeezing

Abstract

We show experimentally that a broad class of interactions involving quantum harmonic oscillators can be made stronger (amplified) using a unitary squeezing protocol. While our demonstration uses the motional and internal states of a single trapped 25Mg+ ion, the scheme applies generally to Hamiltonians involving just a single harmonic oscillator as well as Hamiltonians coupling the oscillator to another quantum degree of freedom such as a qubit, covering a large range of systems of interest in quantum information and metrology applications. Importantly, the protocol does not require knowledge of the parameters of the Hamiltonian to be amplified, nor does it require a well-defined phase relationship between the squeezing interaction and the rest of the system dynamics, making it potentially useful in instances where certain aspects of a signal or interaction may be unknown or uncontrolled, such as searches for novel forms of dark matter.