Probing Nano-Mechanical QED Effects

We propose and study an "intrinsic probing" approach, without introducing any external detector, to mimic cavity QED effects in a qubit-nanomechanical resonator system. This metallic nanomechanical resonator can act as an intrinsic detector when a weak driving current passes through it. The nanomechanical resonator acts as both the cavity and the detector. A cavity QED-like effect is demonstrated by the correlation spectrum of the electromotive force between the two ends of the nanomechanical resonator. Using the quantum regression theorem and perturbation theory, we analytically calculate the correlation spectrum. In the weak driving limit, we study the effect on the vacuum Rabi splitting of both the strength of the driving as well as the frequency-detuning between the charge qubit and the nanomechanical resonator. Numerical calculations confirm the validity of our intrinsic probing approach.