Nonclassical light stands out for its ability to improve quantum metrology, cryptography, and optical
quantum computation. Yet, generation of certain types of nonclassical light, especially Fock states,
remains a considerable challenge. Optomechanical systems, characterized by a nonlinear interac-
tion between light and a mechanical oscillator, have emerged as a promising avenue to address this
challenge. However, these systems also introduce challenges due to the intricate interplay between
mechanical and optical components, and the interference of cavity dissipation. This thesis introduces
innovative driving strategies that address the two limitations.
First, a driving scheme is proposed to generate separable optomechanical states, while maintaining the
nonlinear nature of the system dynamics. This is illustrated with driving profiles leading to an optical
two-photon Fock state and its superpositions with the vacuum. While the study mainly focuses on an
ideal situation where the system dissipations are neglected, I also show that the fidelity of the final
states remain high even when perturbed by the environment.
Then, I consider a more general case where the optical dissipation is no longer negligible. A novel
driving scheme is crafted to suppress destructive interference of Fock state amplitudes of more than a
single photon. As a result, strong photon-blockade effect can be realized in a time orders of magnitude
shorter than in existing schemes that achieve photon blockade in the steady state. Moreover, the driving
scheme provides the flexibility to adjust the duration of photon blockade, as well as to increase the
single-photon occupation at the cost of weaker photon blockade.
Towards the end, the existing study is extended to include the dynamics of external components. In
the study, I consider a simple case where leaked light is directed into a resonant cavity. The range
of system parameters where the output cavity also experiences pronounced photon blockade is then
identified.