arXiv · 1003.5046
Uncertainty-principle noise in vacuum-tunneling transducers
Abstract
The fundamental sources of noise in a vacuum-tunneling probe used as an electromechanical transducer to monitor the location of a test mass are examined using a first-quantization formalism. We show that a tunneling transducer enforces the Heisenberg uncertainty principle for the position and momentum of a test mass monitored by the transducer through the presence of two sources of noise: the shot noise of the tunneling current and the momentum fluctuations transferred by the tunneling electrons to the test mass. We analyze a number of cases including symmetric and asymmetric rectangular potential barriers and a barrier in which there is a constant electric field. Practical configurations for reaching the quantum limit in measurements of the position of macroscopic bodies with such a class of transducers are studied.
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Carlo Presilla, Roberto Onofrio, Mark F. Bocko. 2010-03-26. Uncertainty-principle noise in vacuum-tunneling transducers. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.45.3735
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