Nonclassical mechanical states in cavity optomechanics in the single-photon strong-coupling regime

In the context of cavity optomechanics in the strong-coupling regime, the authors present a method for generating nonclassical motional states of a mechanical resonator. The states' nonclassical nature, which is manifested by a strongly negative Wigner function, is found to be due to the interplay between the intrinsically nonlinear optomechanical interaction and the laser drive applied to the cavity.