QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

Displaced single-photon entanglement is a simple form of optical entanglement, obtained by sending a photon on a beam splitter and subsequently applying a displacement operation. We show that it can generate, through a momentum transfer in the pulsed regime, an optomechanical entangled state involving macroscopically distinct mechanical components, even if the optomechanical system operates in the singlephoton weak coupling regime. We discuss the experimental feasibility of this approach and show that it might open up a way for testing unconventional decoherence models