Kerr-enhanced optomechanical entanglement generation via reservoir design

Quantum entanglement is a crucial resource in quantum technologies, enabling advancements in quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum precision measurement. Here, we propose a method to enhance optomechanical entanglement by introducing an optical Kerr nonlinear medium and a squeezed vacuum reservoir of the optomechanical cavity. By performing the displacement and squeezing transformations, the system can be reduced to a standard linearized optomechanical system with normalized driving detuning and linearized-coupling strength, in which the optical and mechanical modes are, respectively, coupled to an optical vacuum bath and a mechanical heat bath. We focus on the entanglement generation in the single stable regime of the system. By evaluating the steady-state logarithm negativity, we find that the optomechanical entanglement can be enhanced within a wide range of the Kerr constant. In addition, the Kerr nonlinearity can extend the stable region, enabling considerable entanglement generation in the blue sideband-parameter region. We also investigate the dependence of the entanglement generation on the average thermal phonon occupation of the mechanical bath and the optical driving amplitude. It is found that the presence of the Kerr nonlinearity allows the generation of optomechanical entanglement even when the thermal phonon occupation of the mechanical bath is as high as 3000. Our findings will provide valuable insights into enhancing fragile quantum resources in quantum systems.