QUOVADIS

The recent developments in the field of optomechanics make it possible to cool mechanical oscillators close to their ground state of motion and to perform pristine quantum optical experiments with macroscopic objects. A difficulty for cooling typical macroscopic oscillators however is the thermalization due to the contact of the object to a structure. Various solutions have been envisionned to circumvent this issue, a prominant escape route being to levitate the object. Inspired by recent trailblaizing achievements with hybrid opto-mechanical systems, cooling schemes using embedded quantum emitters have then been propounded since they have the potential to enlarge the scope of opto-mechanical studies to seek novel quantum optical paradigms. In this direction, experiments done with optically levitating nanodiamonds containing nitrogen- vacancy (NV) centers are the most advanced, but light scattering from the trapping laser affects the NV center’s photo-response which will in turn hinder the particule motional read-out. The QUOVADIS project will bypass the optical trap approach by realizing an ion trap based quantum microscope for nanodiamonds containing NV centers. This novel architecture will enable cooling of the center of mass of a nanodiamond close to the ground state of motion, observing quantum jumps of a mechanical oscillator, and remotely entangling the oscillations of two diamonds. The platform will furthermore open opportunities for studying fundamental phenomena in quantum optics and establish building blocks of future quantum-based technologies.