Florence and CNR researchers report stationary entanglement between a glass sphere’s motion and the optical field leaving a cavity. The sphere is about 100 nanometers across, suspended by optical tweezers in vacuum between mirrors. One laser cools and stabilizes its motion; another creates the correlations.
The group reports a separability parameter of 0.918 ± 0.029, below the classical threshold of one, across a bandwidth exceeding 40 kilohertz. The departing light is significant: the correlated optical field can propagate away from the localized mechanical system. The apparatus operates at room temperature, while the particle’s motion is optically cooled. A functioning quantum memory or network remains a proposed application. The CNR announcement is October 2; the paper had an earlier preprint. CNR’s explanation · Research preprint.