Integrated III-V Photonic Crystal--Si waveguide platform with tailored optomechanical coupling

Integrated microcavity optomechanics with a suspended photonic crystal mirror above a distributed Bragg reflector

Increasing the interaction between light and mechanical resonators is an ongoing endeavor in the field of cavity optomechanics. Optical microcavities allow for boosting the interaction strength through their strong spatial confinement of the optical field. In this work, we follow this approach by realizing a sub-wavelength-long, free-space optomechanical microcavity on-chip fabricated from an (Al,Ga)As heterostructure. A suspended GaAs photonic crystal mirror is acting as a highly reflective mechanical resonator, which together with a distributed Bragg (DBR) reflector forms an optomechanical microcavity. We demonstrate precise control over the microcavity resonance by change of the photonic crystal parameters. We find that the microcavity mode can strongly couple to the transmissive modes of the DBR. The interplay between the microcavity mode and a guided resonance of the photonic crystal modifies the cavity response and results in a stronger dynamical backaction on the mechanical resonator compared to conventional optomechanical dynamics.

Floquet Control of Optomechanical Bistability in Multimode Systems

Cavity optomechanical systems make possible the fine manipulation of mechanical degrees of freedom with light, adding functionality and having broad appeal in photonic technologies. We show that distinct mechanical modes can be exploited with a temporally modulated Floquet drive to steer between distinct steady states induced by changes of cavity radiation pressure. We investigate the additional influence of the thermo-optic nonlinearity on these dynamics and find that it can suppress or amplify the control mechanism in contrast to its often performance-limiting character. Our results provide new techniques for the characterization of thermal properties of optomechanical systems and their control, sensing and computational applications.

A lensed fiber Bragg grating-based membrane-in-the-middle optomechanical cavity

Optomechanical systems benefit from the coupling between an optical field and mechanical vibrations. Fiber-based devices are well suited to easily exploit this interaction. We report an alternative approach of a silicon nitride membrane-in-the-middle of a high quality factor ([Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text]) Fabry-Perot, formed by a grating inscribed within a fiber core as an input mirror in front of a dielectric back mirror. The Pound-Drever-Hall technique used to stabilize the laser frequency on the optical resonance frequency allows us to reduce the low frequency noise down to [Formula: see text]. We present a detailed methodology for the characterization of the optical and optomechanical properties of this stabilized system, using various membrane geometries, with corresponding resonance frequencies in the range of several hundred of [Formula: see text]. The excellent long-term stability is illustrated by continuous measurements of the thermomechanical noise spectrum over several days, with the laser source maintained at optical resonance. This major result makes this system an ideal candidate for optomechanical sensing.

Vibrational Resonance Amplification in a Thermo-Optic Optomechanical Nanocavity

Vibrational resonance is a generic phenomenon found in many different bistable systems whereby a weak low-frequency signal is amplified by use of an additional nonresonant high-frequency modulation. The realization of weak signal enhancement in integrated nonlinear optical nanocavities is of great interest for nanophotonic applications where optical signals may be of low power. Here, we report experimental observation of vibrational resonance in a thermo-optically bistable photonic crystal optomechanical resonator with an amplification up to +16 dB. The characterization of the bistability can interestingly be done using a mechanical resonance of the membrane, which is submitted to a strong thermoelastic coupling with the cavity.

Force measurement in squeezed dissipative optomechanics in the presence of laser phase noise

We investigate the force measurement sensitivity in a squeezed dissipative optomechanics within the free-mass regime under the influence of shot noise (SN) from the photon number fluctuations, laser phase noise from the pump laser, thermal noise from the environment, and optical losses from outcoupling and detection inefficiencies. Generally, squeezed light could generate a reduced SN on the squeezed quadrature and an enlarged quantum backaction noise (QBA) due to the antisqueezed conjugate quadrature. With an appropriate choice of phase angle in homodyne detection, QBA is cancellable, leading to an exponentially improved measurement sensitivity for the SN-dominated regime. By now, the effects of laser phase noise that is proportional to laser power emerge. The balance between squeezed SN and phase noise can lead to an sub-SQL sensitivity at an exponentially lower input power. However, the improvement by squeezing is limited by optical losses because high sensitivity is delicate and easily destroyed by optical losses.

High-mechanical-frequency characteristics of optomechanical crystal cavity with coupling waveguide

Optomechanical crystals have attracted great attention recently for their ability to realize strong photon-phonon interaction in cavity optomechanical systems. By far, the operation of cavity optomechanical systems with high mechanical frequency has to employ tapered fibres or one-sided waveguides with circulators to couple the light into and out of the cavities, which hinders their on-chip applications. Here, we demonstrate larger-centre-hole nanobeam structures with on-chip transmission-coupling waveguide. The measured mechanical frequency is up to 4.47 GHz, with a high mechanical Q-factor of 1.4 × 10³ in the ambient environment. The corresponding optomechanical coupling rate is calculated and measured to be 836 kHz and 1.2 MHz, respectively, while the effective mass is estimated to be 136 fg. With the transmission waveguide coupled structure and a small footprint of 3.4 μm², this simple cavity can be directly used as functional components or integrated with other on-chip devices in future practical applications.