Quantum Optics Meets Acoustics

The creation, manipulation, and detection of gigaHertz-frequency acoustic excitations on the quantum level - phonons - is the domain of quantum acoustics. Compared to photons, phonons propagate at velocities that are slower by several orders of magnitude, can achieve significantly stronger coupling to other quantum systems, and experience much stronger nonlinearities in their mutual interaction. Despite this, gigaHertz quantum phonons have long coherence times up to milliseconds, which allows studying quantum physics in a new massive regime and enables new application perspectives for quantum technologies.

This Lorentz Center workshop brings together researchers across different areas of physics from quantum optics to quantum matter, in order to explore present and future challenges and opportunities of quantum acoustics. In moderated and informal discussion sessions we aim to gain an increased understanding of the propagation properties of quantum phonons, deepen our understanding of their interactions with other systems from spintronics to magnonics, and identify the fundamental limits of these interactions.