Light-mediated strong coupling between a mechanical oscillator and atomic spins 1 meter apart

Engineering strong interactions between quantum systems is essential for many phenomena of quantum physics and technology. Typically, strong coupling relies on short-range forces or on placing the systems in high-quality electromagnetic resonators, which restricts the range of the coupling to small distances. We used a free-space laser beam to strongly couple a collective atomic spin and a micromechanical membrane over a distance of 1 meter in a room-temperature environment. The coupling is highly tunable and allows the observation of normal-mode splitting, coherent energy exchange oscillations, two-mode thermal noise squeezing, and dissipative coupling. Our approach to engineering coherent long-distance interactions with light makes it possible to couple very different systems in a modular way, opening up a range of opportunities for quantum control and coherent feedback networks.