Wigner Function Reconstruction in Levitated Optomechanics

Abstract: We demonstrate the reconstruction of the Wigner function from marginal distributions of the motion of a single trapped particle using homodyne detection. We show that it is possible to generate quantum states of levitated optomechanical systems even under the effect of continuous measurement by the trapping laser light. We describe the opto-mechanical coupling for the case of the particle trapped by a free-space focused laser beam, explicitly for the case without an optical cavity. We use the scheme to reconstruct the Wigner function of experimental data in perfect agreement with the expected Gaussian distribution of a thermal state of motion. This opens a route for quantum state preparation in levitated optomechanics.