Coherent mixing of mechanical excitations in nano-optomechanical structures
The combination of the large per-photon optical force and small motional mass achievable in nanocavity optomechanical systems results in strong dynamical back-action between mechanical motion and the cavity light field. In this Article, we study the optical control of mechanical motion within two di...
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Published in | Nature photonics Vol. 4; no. 4; pp. 236 - 242 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
01.04.2010
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The combination of the large per-photon optical force and small motional mass achievable in nanocavity optomechanical systems results in strong dynamical back-action between mechanical motion and the cavity light field. In this Article, we study the optical control of mechanical motion within two different nanocavity structures, a zipper nanobeam photonic crystal cavity and a double-microdisk whispering-gallery resonator. The strong optical gradient force within these cavities is shown to introduce significant optical rigidity into the structure, with the dressed mechanical states renormalized into optically bright and optically dark modes of motion. With the addition of internal mechanical coupling between mechanical modes, a form of optically controlled mechanical transparency is demonstrated in analogy to electromagnetically induced transparency of three-level atomic media. Based upon these measurements, a proposal for coherently transferring radio-frequency/microwave signals between the optical field and a long-lived dark mechanical state is described.
Nanocavity optomechanical systems can exhibit strong dynamical back-action between mechanical motion and the cavity light field. Here, optical control of mechanical motion within two different nanocavity structures is demonstrated. A form of optically controlled mechanical transparency is also demonstrated, which is analogous to electromagnetically induced transparency. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1749-4885 1749-4893 |
DOI: | 10.1038/nphoton.2010.5 |