Self-cooling of a micromirror by radiation pressure

Photon Pressure with an Effective Negative Mass Microwave Mode

Harmonic oscillators belong to the most fundamental concepts in physics and are central to many current research fields such as circuit QED, cavity optomechanics, and photon pressure systems. Here, we engineer a microwave mode in a superconducting LC circuit that mimics the dynamics of a negative mass oscillator, and couple it via photon pressure to a second low-frequency circuit. We demonstrate that the effective negative mass dynamics lead to an inversion of dynamical backaction and to sideband cooling of the low-frequency circuit by a blue-detuned pump field, which can be intuitively understood by the inverted energy ladder of a negative mass oscillator.

Molecular Polaritons for Chemistry, Photonics and Quantum Technologies

Molecular polaritons are quasiparticles resulting from the hybridization between molecular and photonic modes. These composite entities, bearing characteristics inherited from both constituents, exhibit modified energy levels and wave functions, thereby capturing the attention of chemists in the past decade. The potential to modify chemical reactions has spurred many investigations, alongside efforts to enhance and manipulate optical responses for photonic and quantum applications. This Review centers on the experimental advances in this burgeoning field. Commencing with an introduction of the fundamentals, including theoretical foundations and various cavity architectures, we discuss outcomes of polariton-modified chemical reactions. Furthermore, we navigate through the ongoing debates and uncertainties surrounding the underpinning mechanism of this innovative method of controlling chemistry. Emphasis is placed on gaining a comprehensive understanding of the energy dynamics of molecular polaritons, in particular, vibrational molecular polaritons─a pivotal facet in steering chemical reactions. Additionally, we discuss the unique capability of coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy to dissect polariton and dark mode dynamics, offering insights into the critical components within the cavity that alter chemical reactions. We further expand to the potential utility of molecular polaritons in quantum applications as well as precise manipulation of molecular and photonic polarizations, notably in the context of chiral phenomena. This discussion aspires to ignite deeper curiosity and engagement in revealing the physics underpinning polariton-modified molecular properties, and a broad fascination with harnessing photonic environments to control chemistry.

Optoacoustic Cooling of Traveling Hypersound Waves

We experimentally demonstrate optoacoustic cooling via stimulated Brillouin-Mandelstam scattering in a 50 cm long tapered photonic crystal fiber. For a 7.38 GHz acoustic mode, a cooling rate of 219 K from room temperature has been achieved. As anti-Stokes and Stokes Brillouin processes naturally break the symmetry of phonon cooling and heating, resolved sideband schemes are not necessary. The experiments pave the way to explore the classical to quantum transition for macroscopic objects and could enable new quantum technologies in terms of storage and repeater schemes.

Quantum correlation in a nano-electro-optomechanical system enhanced by an optical parametric amplifier and Coulomb-type interaction

In this paper, we investigated the quantum correlation of nano-electro-optomechanical system enhanced by an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) and Coulomb-type interaction. In particular, we consider a hybrid system consisting of a cavity and two charged mechanical oscillators with an OPA, where the optical cavity mode is coupled with a charged mechanical oscillator via radiation pressure, and the two charged mechanical oscillators are coupled through a Coulomb interaction. We use logarithmic negativity to quantify quantum entanglement, and quantum discord to measure the quantumness correlation between the two mechanical oscillators. We characterize quantum steering using the steerability between the two mechanical oscillators. Our results show that the presence of OPA and strong Coulomb coupling enhances the quantum correlations between the two mechanical oscillators. In addition, Coulomb interactions are more prominent in quantum correlations. Besides, in the presence of OPA, the maximum amount of quantum entanglement, quantum steering, and quantum discord were achieved between the two mechanical oscillators is greater than in the absence of OPA. Moreover, a proper phase choice of the optical field driving the OPA enhances quantum correlations under suitable conditions. We obtain quantum entanglement confines quantum steering and quantum discord beyond entanglement. Furthermore, quantum entanglement, quantum steering, and quantum discord decrease rapidly with increasing temperature as a result of decoherence. In addition, quantum discord persists at higher temperature values, although the quantum entanglement between the systems also vanishes completely. Our proposed scheme enhances quantum correlation and proves robust against fluctuations in the bath environment. We believe that the present scheme of quantum correlation provides a promising platform for the realization of continuous variable quantum information processing.

Photothermal effect in macroscopic optomechanical systems with an intracavity nonlinear optical crystal

Intracavity squeezing is a promising technique that may improve the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors and cool optomechanical oscillators to the ground state. However, the photothermal effect may modify the occurrence of optomechanical coupling due to the presence of a nonlinear optical crystal in an optical cavity. We propose a novel method to predict the influence of the photothermal effect by measuring the susceptibility of the optomechanical oscillator and identifying the net optical spring constant and photothermal absorption rate. Using this method, we succeeded in precisely estimating parameters related to even minor photothermal effects, which could not be measured using a previously developed method.

Generation of Schrödinger Cat States in a Hybrid Cavity Optomechanical System

We present an alternative scheme to achieve Schrödinger cat states in a strong coupling hybrid cavity optomechanical system. Under the single-photon strong-coupling regime, the interaction between the atom-cavity-oscillator system can induce the mesoscopic mechanical oscillator to Schrödinger cat states. Comparing to previous schemes, the proposed proposal consider the second order approximation on the Lamb-Dicke parameter, which is more universal in the experiment. Numerical simulations confirm the validity of our derivation.

Sub-femto-Newton sensing torsion pendulum for detection of light force

Mechanical oscillators are widely used in many fields of physics, including ultrahigh precision measurements, gravity experiments, and optical mechanical systems. A sub-gram-scale silicon wafer is suspended by a tungsten wire with a diameter of 8 µm, forming a torsion pendulum to detect the laser radiation pressure. We demonstrate the application of a low-frequency, highly sensitive torsion pendulum for the measurement of light forces. In the feedback cooling state, the system exhibits a force sensitivity at the end of the pendulum close to 0.1 fN, approaches the thermal noise limit, and reaches the detection level of the laser radiation pressure of 60 nW.

Laser Cooling of a Lattice Vibration in van der Waals Semiconductor

Laser cooling atoms and molecules to ultralow temperatures has produced plenty of opportunities in fundamental physics, precision metrology, and quantum science. Although theoretically proposed over 40 years, the laser cooling of certain lattice vibrations (i.e., phonon) remains a challenge owing to the complexity of solid structures. Here, we demonstrate Raman cooling of a longitudinal optical phonon in two-dimensional semiconductor WS₂ by red-detuning excitation at the sideband of the exciton (bound electron-hole pair). Strong coupling between the phonon and exciton and appreciable optomechanical coupling rates provide access to cooling high-frequency phonons that are robust against thermal decoherence even at room temperature. Our experiment opens possibilities of laser cooling and control of individual optical phonon and, eventually, possible cooling of matter in van der Waals semiconductor.

Nonlinearity-mediated digitization and amplification in electromechanical phonon-cavity systems

Electromechanical phonon-cavity systems are man-made micro-structures, in which vibrational energy can be coherently transferred between different degrees of freedom. In such devices, the energy transfer direction and coupling strength can be parametrically controlled, offering great opportunities for both fundamental studies and practical applications such as phonon manipulation and sensing. However, to date the investigation of such systems has largely been limited to linear vibrations, while their responses in the nonlinear regime remain yet to be explored. Here, we demonstrate nonlinear operation of electromechanical phonon-cavity systems, and show that the resonant response differs drastically from that in the linear regime. We further demonstrate that by controlling the parametric pump, one can achieve nonlinearity-mediated digitization and amplification in the frequency domain, which can be exploited to build high-performance MEMS sensing devices based on phonon-cavity systems. Our findings offer intriguing opportunities for creating frequency-shift-based sensors and transducers.

Vibrational Strong Light-Matter Coupling in an Open Microcavity Based on Reflective Germanium Coatings

Open microcavities (OMCs) enable tuning of the optical resonances of a system and insertion of different materials between the mirrors. They are of large scientific interest due to their many potential applications. Using OMCs, we can observe strong light-matter coupling while tuning the cavity wavelength. Typically, dielectric Bragg reflectors (DBRs) and Au mirrors are used to form microcavities and observe vibrational strong coupling (VSC) in the middle-infrared (MIR) spectral region. Here, we make the mirrors of the OMC using thin film coatings of the semiconducting material germanium (Ge) and demonstrate VSC in the MIR region. We deposited a uniform coating of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) on one of the OMC mirrors' inner surfaces, and then we tuned the cavity to the carbonyl stretch mode resonance at 1731 cm^-1. Comparing VSC using Ge mirrors to DBRs or Au mirrors, we achieve enhanced optical transmission through the polaritonic resonances and large Rabi splitting, with Rabi-splitting values of 8.8 meV for the Ge mirror-based OMC compared to 7.0 and 7.4 meV for the DBR- and Au-based microcavities, respectively. The use of Ge mirror components can simplify the microcavity structure and offer a new and simple alternative for MIR semiconductor mirrors, which may be particularly useful for polariton chemistry applications.

Reversing Lindblad Dynamics via Continuous Petz Recovery Map

An important issue in developing quantum technology is that quantum states are so sensitive to noise. We propose a protocol that introduces reverse dynamics, in order to precisely control quantum systems against noise described by the Lindblad master equation. The reverse dynamics can be obtained by constructing the Petz recovery map in continuous time. By providing the exact form of the Hamiltonian and jump operators for the reverse dynamics, we explore the potential of utilizing the near-optimal recovery of the Petz map in controlling noisy quantum dynamics. While time-dependent dissipation engineering enables us to fully recover a single quantum trajectory, we also design a time-independent recovery protocol to protect encoded quantum information against decoherence. Our protocol can efficiently suppress only the noise part of dynamics thereby providing an effective unitary evolution of the quantum system.

Quality factor control of mechanical resonators using variable phononic bandgap on periodic microstructures

The quality factor (Q-factor) is an important parameter for mechanical resonant sensors, and the optimal values depend on its application. Therefore, Q-factor control is essential for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Conventional methods have some restrictions, such as additional and complicated equipment or nanoscale dimensions; thus, structural methods are one of the reasonable solutions for simplifying the system. In this study, we demonstrate Q-factor control using a variable phononic bandgap by changing the length of the periodic microstructure. For this, silicon microstructure is used because it has both periodicity and a spring structure. The bandgap change is experimentally confirmed by measuring the Q-factors of mechanical resonators with different resonant frequencies. The bandgap range varies depending on the extended structure length, followed by a change in the Q-factor value. In addition, the effects of the periodic structure on the Q-factor enhancement and the influence of stress on the structural length were evaluated. Although microstructures can improve the Q-factors irrespective of periodicity; the result of the periodic microstructure is found to be efficient. The proposed method is feasible as the novel Q-factor control technique has good compatibility with conventional MEMS.

An electro-mechano-optical NMR probe for 1H–13C double resonance in a superconducting magnet

A compact nanomembrane radiofrequency-to-light transducer brings the emerging Electro-Mechano-Optical (EMO) NMR technique into the realm of practical NMR in chemistry using a superconducting magnet.

Cooling photon-pressure circuits into the quantum regime

Quantum control of electromagnetic fields was initially established in the optical domain and has been advanced to lower frequencies in the gigahertz range during the past decades extending quantum photonics to broader frequency regimes. In standard cryogenic systems, however, thermal decoherence prevents access to the quantum regime for photon frequencies below the gigahertz domain. Here, we engineer two superconducting LC circuits coupled by a photon-pressure interaction and demonstrate sideband cooling of a hot radio frequency (RF) circuit using a microwave cavity. Because of a substantially increased coupling strength, we obtain a large single-photon quantum cooperativity 𝒞_q0 ∼ 1 and reduce the thermal RF occupancy by 75% with less than one pump photon. For larger pump powers, the coupling rate exceeds the RF thermal decoherence rate by a factor of 3, and the RF circuit is cooled into the quantum ground state. Our results lay the foundation for RF quantum photonics.

Polariton multistability in a nonlinear optomechanical cavity

We theoretically study the polariton multistability in a solid state based optomechanical resonator embedded with a quantum well and aχ⁽²⁾second order nonlinear medium. The excitonic transition inside the quantum well is strongly coupled to the optical cavity mode. The polariton formed due to the mixing of cavity photons and exciton states are coupled to the mechanical mode which gives rise to the bistable behavior. A transition from bistability to tristability occurs in the presence of a strongχ⁽²⁾nonlinearity. Switching between bistability and tristability can also be controlled using exciton-cavity and optomechanical coupling making the system highly tunable. Tristability appears at low input power making it a suitable candidate for polaritonic devices which requires low input power.

Optomechanical atomic force microscope

In the scanning probe microscope system, the weak signal detection of cantilever vibration is one of the important factors affecting the sensor sensitivity. In our current work, we present a novel design concept for an atomic force microscope (AFM) combined with optomechanics with an ultra-high quality factor and a low thermal noise. The detection system consists of a fixed mirror placed on the cantilever of the AFM and pump-probe beams that is equivalent to a Fabry-Perot cavity. We realize that the AFM combined with an optical cavity can achieve ultra-sensitive detection of force gradients of 10^-12 N m^-1 in the case of high-vacuum and low effective temperature of 1 mK, which may open up new avenues for super-high resolution imaging and super-high precision force spectroscopy.

Fluctuation-enhanced Kerr nonlinearity in an atom-assisted optomechanical system with atom-cavity interactions

We examine the effect of cavity field fluctuations on Kerr nonlinearity in an atom-assisted optomechanical system. It is found that a new self-Kerr (SK) nonlinearity term, which can greatly surpass that of a classical Λ type atomic system when the hybrid system has numerous atoms, is generated based on cavity field fluctuations by atom-cavity interactions. A strong photon-phonon cross-Kerr (CK) nonlinearity is also produced based on cavity field fluctuations. These nonlinearity features can be modified by atom-cavity and optomechanical interactions. This work may provide a new method to enhance the SK nonlinearity and generate the photon-phonon CK nonlinearity.

Quantum entanglement and reflection coefficient for coupled harmonic oscillators

Quantum entanglement of a system of two coupled quantum harmonic oscillators with a Hamiltonian H[over ̂]=1/2(1/m_{1}p[over ̂]_{1}^{2}+1/m_{2}p[over ̂]_{2}^{2}+Ax_{1}^{2}+Bx_{2}^{2}+Cx_{1}x_{2}) can be found in many applications of quantum and nonlinear physics, molecular chemistry, and biophysics. Despite this, the quantum entanglement of such a system is still a problem under study. This is primarily due to the fact that the system is multiparametric and the quantum entanglement of such a system is not defined in a simple analytical form. This paper solves this problem and shows that quantum entanglement depends on only one parameter that has a simple physical meaning: the reflection coefficient R∈(0,1). The reflection coefficient R has a simple analytical form and includes all the parameters of the system under consideration. It is shown that for certain values of the coefficient R, the quantum entanglement can be large. The developed theory can be used not only for calculating quantum entanglement, but also for many other applications in physics, chemistry, and biophysics, where coupled harmonic oscillators are considered.

Approximate Evolution for A Hybrid System-An Optomechanical Jaynes-Cummings Model

In this work, we start from a phenomenological Hamiltonian built from two known systems: the Hamiltonian of a pumped optomechanical system and the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. Using algebraic techniques we construct an approximate time evolution operator U^(t) for the forced optomechanical system (as a product of exponentials) and take the JC Hamiltonian as an interaction. We transform the later with U^(t) to obtain a generalized interaction picture Hamiltonian which can be linearized and whose time evolution operator is written in a product form. The analytic results are compared with purely numerical calculations using the full Hamiltonian and the agreement between them is remarkable.

Radiation pressure measurement using a macroscopic oscillator in an ambient environment

In contrast to current efforts to quantify the radiation pressure of light using nano-micromechanical resonators in cryogenic conditions, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated the radiation pressure measurement in ambient conditions by utilizing a macroscopic mechanical longitudinal oscillator with an effective mass of the order of 20 g. The light pressure on a mirror attached to the oscillator was recorded in a Michelson interferometer and results showed, within the experimental accuracy of 3.9%, a good agreement with the harmonic oscillator model without free parameters.

Prospects of reinforcement learning for the simultaneous damping of many mechanical modes

We apply adaptive feedback for the partial refrigeration of a mechanical resonator, i.e. with the aim to simultaneously cool the classical thermal motion of more than one vibrational degree of freedom. The feedback is obtained from a neural network parametrized policy trained via a reinforcement learning strategy to choose the correct sequence of actions from a finite set in order to simultaneously reduce the energy of many modes of vibration. The actions are realized either as optical modulations of the spring constants in the so-called quadratic optomechanical coupling regime or as radiation pressure induced momentum kicks in the linear coupling regime. As a proof of principle we numerically illustrate efficient simultaneous cooling of four independent modes with an overall strong reduction of the total system temperature.

Photothermally induced transparency

Induced transparency is a common but remarkable effect in optics. It occurs when a strong driving field is used to render an otherwise opaque material transparent. The effect is known as electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic media and optomechanically induced transparency in systems that consist of coupled optical and mechanical resonators. In this work, we introduce the concept of photothermally induced transparency (PTIT). It happens when an optical resonator exhibits nonlinear behavior due to optical heating of the resonator or its mirrors. Similar to the established mechanisms for induced transparency, PTIT can suppress the coupling between an optical resonator and a traveling optical field. We further show that the dispersion of the resonator can be modified to exhibit slow or fast light. Because of the relatively slow thermal response, we observe the bandwidth of the PTIT to be 2π × 15.9 Hz, which theoretically suggests a group velocity of as low as 5 m/s.

Sub-cycle time resolution of multi-photon momentum transfer in strong-field ionization

During multi-photon ionization of an atom it is well understood how the involved photons transfer their energy to the ion and the photoelectron. However, the transfer of the photon linear momentum is still not fully understood. Here, we present a time-resolved measurement of linear momentum transfer along the laser pulse propagation direction. We can show that the linear momentum transfer to the photoelectron depends on the ionization time within the laser cycle using the attoclock technique. We can mostly explain the measured linear momentum transfer within a classical model for a free electron in a laser field. However, corrections are required due to the parent-ion interaction and due to the initial momentum when the electron enters the continuum. The parent-ion interaction induces a negative attosecond time delay between the appearance in the continuum of the electron with minimal linear momentum transfer and the point in time with maximum ionization rate.

Partial Optomechanical Refrigeration via Multimode Cold-Damping Feedback

We provide a fully analytical treatment for the partial refrigeration of the thermal motion of a quantum mechanical resonator under the action of feedback. As opposed to standard cavity optomechanics where the aim is to isolate and cool a single mechanical mode, the aim here is to extract the thermal energy from many vibrational modes within a large frequency bandwidth. We consider a standard cold-damping technique, where homodyne readout of the cavity output field is fed into a feedback loop that provides a cooling action directly applied on the mechanical resonator. Analytical and numerical results predict that low final occupancies are achievable independent of the number of modes addressed by the feedback, as long as the cooling rate is smaller than the intermode frequency separation. For resonators exhibiting a few nearly degenerate pairs of modes, cooling is less efficient and a weak dependence on the number of modes is obtained. These scalings hint toward the design of frequency-resolved mechanical resonators, where efficient refrigeration is possible via simultaneous cold-damping feedback.

Self-excited oscillation and synchronization of an on-fiber optomechanical cavity

We study a fully on-fiber optomechanical cavity and characterize its performance as a sensor. The cavity is formed by patterning a suspended metallic mirror near the tip of an optical fiber and by introducing a static reflector inside the fiber. Optically induced self-excited oscillation (SEO) is observed above a threshold value of the injected laser power. The SEO phase can be synchronized by periodically modulating the optical power that is injected into the cavity. Noise properties of the system in the region of synchronization are investigated. Moreover, the spectrum is measured near different values of the modulation frequency, at which phase locking occurs. A universal behavior is revealed in the transition between the regions of phase locked and free running SEO.

Temperature-resistant generation of robust entanglement with blue-detuning driving and mechanical gain

We present a proposal to generate robust optomechanical entanglement induced by the blue-detuning laser and the mechanical gain in a double-cavity optomechanical system. We show that the stability of the system can be obtained by introducing a cavity mode driven by the red-detuning laser in the blue-detuning regime. In contrast to the red-detuning regime, we find that the entanglement in the blue-detuning regime is extremely robust to temperature. The cavity mode driven by the blue-detuning laser can control indirectly the optomechanical entanglement between mechanical resonator and cavity mode driven by the red-detuning laser. Moreover, the entanglement between two cavity modes without direct coupling can also be achieved in our system. Although the entanglement is weak, it is robust to temperature, and meanwhile, the optomechanical entanglement is hardly affected by the temperature when the damping rate of the mechanical oscillator is close to zero. Furthermore, the entanglement amplification at high temperature can be achieved by adjusting the mechanical gain appropriately. Our proposal provides an efficient way to achieve robust optomechanical entanglement in the blue-detuning regime and entanglement amplification in optomechanical system with mechanical gain.

Cavity Cooling of a Levitated Nanosphere by Coherent Scattering

We report three-dimensional (3D) cooling of a levitated nanoparticle inside an optical cavity. The cooling mechanism is provided by cavity-enhanced coherent scattering off an optical tweezer. The observed 3D dynamics and cooling rates are as theoretically expected from the presence of both linear and quadratic terms in the interaction between the particle motion and the cavity field. By achieving nanometer-level control over the particle location we optimize the position-dependent coupling and demonstrate axial cooling by two orders of magnitude at background pressures of 6×10^{-2}  mbar. We also estimate a significant (>40  dB) suppression of laser phase noise heating, which is a specific feature of the coherent scattering scheme. The observed performance implies that quantum ground state cavity cooling of levitated nanoparticles can be achieved for background pressures below 1×10^{-7}  mbar.

Demonstration of Enhanced Optical Pressure on a Structured Surface

The interaction of electromagnetic waves with condensed matter and the resultant force is fundamental in the physical sciences. The maximum pressure on a planar surface is understood to be twice the incident wave power density normalized by the background velocity. We demonstrate for the first time that this pressure can be exceeded by a substantial factor by structuring a surface. Experimental results for direct optomechanical deflection of a nanostructured gold film on a silicon nitride membrane illuminated by a laser beam are shown to significantly exceed those for the planar surface. This enhanced pressure can be understood as being associated with an asymmetric optical cavity array realized in the membrane film. The possible enhancement depends on the material properties and the geometrical parameters of the structured material. Such control and increase of optical pressure with nanostructured material should impact applications across the physical sciences.

Probing the State of a Mechanical Oscillator with an Ultrastrongly Coupled Quantum Emitter

Performing accurate position measurements of a mechanical resonator by coupling it to some optically driven quantum emitter is an important challenge for quantum sensing and metrology. We fully characterize the quantum noise associated with this measurement process, by deriving master equations for the coupled emitter and the resonator valid in the ultrastrong coupling regime. At short timescales, we show that this noise sets a fundamental limit to the readout sensitivity and that the standard quantum limit can be recovered for realistic experimental conditions. At long timescales, the scattering of the mechanical quadratures leads to the decoupling of the emitter from the driving light, switching off the noise source. This method can be used to describe the interaction of any quantum system strongly coupled to a finite size reservoir.

Measurement of wavelength-dependent radiation pressure from photon reflection and absorption due to thin film interference

Opto-mechanical forces result from the momentum transfer that occurs during light-matter interactions. One of the most common examples of this phenomenon is the radiation pressure that is exerted on a reflective surface upon photon reflection. For an ideal mirror, the radiation pressure is independent of the wavelength of light and depends only on the incident power. Here we consider a different regime where, for a constant input optical power, wavelength-dependent radiation pressure is observed due to coherent thin film Fabry-Perot interference effects. We perform measurements using a Si microcantilever and utilize an in-situ optical transmission technique to determine the local thickness of the cantilever and the light beam’s angle of incidence. Although Si is absorptive in the visible part of the spectrum, by exploiting the Fabry-Perot modes of the cantilever, we can determine whether momentum is transferred via reflection or absorption by tuning the incident wavelength by only ~20 nm. Finally, we demonstrate that the tunable wavelength excitation measurement can be used to separate photothermal effects and radiation pressure.

Micro Fabry-Pérot Interferometer at Rayleigh Range

The Fabry-Pérot interferometer is used in a variety of high-precision optical interferometry applications, such as gravitational wave detection. It is also used in various types of laser resonators to act as a narrow band filter. In addition, ultra-compact Fabry-Pérot interferometers are used in the optical resonators of semiconductor lasers and fiber-optic systems. In this work, we developed a micro-scale Fabry-Pérot interferometer that was constructed within the Rayleigh range of the optical focusing system. The high precision that is conventionally required for the optical parallelism and the surface accuracy of the mirrors was not so critical for this type of Fabry-Pérot interferometer. The interferometer was constructed using a gold-coated silicon microcantilever with reflectivity of 92% and a dielectric multilayer flat mirror with reflectivity of 85%. The focal spot size of the laser beam is 20 μm and the cavity length is approximately 20 μm. The finesse was measured to be approximately 25. The interferometric characteristics of the device were consistent with the theoretically calculated performance. The developed micro Fabry-Pérot interferometer has the potential to make a marked contribution to advances in optical measurements in various micro sensing system.

Tunable phonon blockade in weakly nonlinear coupled mechanical resonators via Coulomb interaction

Realizing quantum mechanical behavior in micro- and nanomechanical resonators has attracted continuous research effort. One of the ways for observing quantum nature of mechanical objects is via the mechanism of phonon blockade. Here, we show that phonon blockade could be achieved in a system of two weakly nonlinear mechanical resonators coupled by a Coulomb interaction. The optimal blockade arises as a result of the destructive quantum interference between paths leading to two-phonon excitation. It is observed that, in comparison to a single drive applied on one mechanical resonator, driving both the resonators can be beneficial in many aspects; such as, in terms of the temperature sensitivity of phonon blockade and also with regard to the tunability, by controlling the amplitude and the phase of the second drive externally. We also show that via a radiation pressure induced coupling in an optomechanical cavity, phonon correlations can be measured indirectly in terms of photon correlations of the cavity mode.

Hybrid Systems for the Generation of Nonclassical Mechanical States via Quadratic Interactions

We present a method to implement two-phonon interactions between mechanical resonators and spin qubits in hybrid setups, and show that these systems can be applied for the generation of nonclassical mechanical states even in the presence of dissipation. In particular, we demonstrate that the implementation of a two-phonon Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian under coherent driving of the qubit yields a dissipative phase transition with similarities to the one predicted in the model of the degenerate parametric oscillator: beyond a certain threshold in the driving amplitude, the driven-dissipative system sustains a mixed steady state consisting of a "jumping cat," i.e., a cat state undergoing random jumps between two phases. We consider realistic setups and show that, in samples within reach of current technology, the system features nonclassical transient states, characterized by a negative Wigner function, that persist during timescales of fractions of a second.

Highly-coherent stimulated phonon oscillations in a multi-core optical fiber

Opto-mechanical oscillators that generate coherent acoustic waves are drawing much interest, in both fundamental research and applications. Narrowband oscillations can be obtained through the introduction of feedback to the acoustic wave. Most previous realizations of this concept, sometimes referred to as "phonon lasers", relied on radiation pressure and moving boundary effects in micro- or nano-structured media. Demonstrations in bulk crystals required cryogenic temperatures. In this work, stimulated emission of highly-coherent acoustic waves is achieved in a commercially-available multi-core fiber, at room temperature. The fiber is connected within an opto-electronic cavity loop. Pump light in one core is driving acoustic waves via electrostriction, whereas an optical probe wave at a different physical core undergoes photo-elastic modulation by the stimulated acoustic waves. Coupling between pump and probe is based entirely on inter-core, opto-mechanical cross-phase modulation: no direct optical feedback is provided. Single-frequency mechanical oscillations at hundreds of MHz frequencies are obtained, with side-mode suppression that is better than 55 dB. A sharp threshold and rapid collapse of the linewidth above threshold are observed. The linewidths of the acoustic oscillations are on the order of 100 Hz, orders of magnitude narrower than those of the pump and probe light sources. The relative Allan's deviation of the frequency is between 0.1-1 ppm. The frequency may be switched among several values by propagating the pump or probe waves in different cores. The results may be used in sensing, metrology and microwave-photonic information processing applications.

Negative-Mass Instability of the Spin and Motion of an Atomic Gas Driven by Optical Cavity Backaction

We realize a spin-orbit interaction between the collective spin precession and center-of-mass motion of a trapped ultracold atomic gas, mediated by spin- and position-dependent dispersive coupling to a driven optical cavity. The collective spin, precessing near its highest-energy state in an applied magnetic field, can be approximated as a negative-mass harmonic oscillator. When the Larmor precession and mechanical motion are nearly resonant, cavity mediated coupling leads to a negative-mass instability, driving exponential growth of a correlated mode of the hybrid system. We observe this growth imprinted on modulations of the cavity field and estimate the full covariance of the resulting two-mode state by observing its transient decay during subsequent free evolution.

Quadrature squeezing of a higher-order sideband spectrum in cavity optomechanics

We propose an efficient scheme to generate quadrature squeezing of a higher-order sideband spectrum in an optomechanical system. This is achieved by exploiting a well-established optomechanical circumstance, where a second-order nonlinearity is embedded into the optomechanical cavity driven by a strong control field and a weak probe pulse. Using experimentally achievable parameters, we demonstrate that the second-order nonlinearity intensity and the frequency detuning of a control field allow us to modify the amplitude of higher-order sidebands and improve the amount of squeezing of a higher-order sideband spectrum. Furthermore, in the presence of a strong second-order nonlinearity, an optimizing quadrature squeezing of a higher-order sideband spectrum can be achieved, which provides a practical opportunity to design the squeezed frequency combs and other precision measurements.

Tunable two-phonon higher-order sideband amplification in a quadratically coupled optomechanical system

We propose an efficient scheme for the controllable amplification of two-phonon higher-order sidebands in a quadratically coupled optomechanical system. In this scheme, a strong control field and a weak probe pulse are injected into the cavity, and the membrane located at the middle position of the cavity is driven resonantly by a weak coherent mechanical pump. Beyond the conventional linearized approximation, we derive analytical expressions for the output transmission of probe pulse and the amplitude of second-order sideband by adding the nonlinear coefficients into the Heisenberg-Langevin formalism. Using experimentally achievable parameters, we identify the conditions under which the mechanical pump and the frequency detuning of control field allow us to modify the transmission of probe pulse and improve the amplitude of two-phonon higher-order sideband generation beyond what is achievable in absence of the mechanical pump. Furthermore, we also find that the higher-order sideband generation depends sensitively on the phase of mechanical pump when the control field becomes strong. The present proposal offers a practical opportunity to design chip-scale optical communications and optical frequency combs.

A robust single-beam optical trap for a gram-scale mechanical oscillator

Precise optical control of microscopic particles has been mastered over the past three decades, with atoms, molecules and nano-particles now routinely trapped and cooled with extraordinary precision, enabling rapid progress in the study of quantum phenomena. Achieving the same level of control over macroscopic objects is expected to bring further advances in precision measurement, quantum information processing and fundamental tests of quantum mechanics. However, cavity optomechanical systems dominated by radiation pressure – so-called ‘optical springs’ – are inherently unstable due to the delayed dynamical response of the cavity. Here we demonstrate a fully stable, single-beam optical trap for a gram-scale mechanical oscillator. The interaction of radiation pressure with thermo-optic feedback generates damping that exceeds the mechanical loss by four orders of magnitude. The stability of the resultant spring is robust to changes in laser power and detuning, and allows purely passive self-locking of the cavity. Our results open up a new way of trapping and cooling macroscopic objects for optomechanical experiments.

Non-conservative optical forces

Undoubtedly, laser tweezers are the most recognized application of optically induced mechanical action. Their operation is usually described in terms of conservative forces originating from intensity gradients. However, the fundamental optical action on matter is non-conservative. We will review different manifestations of non-conservative optical forces (NCF) and discuss their dependence on the specific spatial properties of optical fields that generate them. New developments relevant to the NCF such as tractor beams and transversal forces are also discussed.

Optical wireless information transfer with nonlinear micromechanical resonators

Wireless transfer of information is the basis of modern communication. It includes cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS systems, all of which use electromagnetic radio waves with frequencies ranging from typically 100 MHz to a few GHz. However, several long-standing challenges with standard radio-wave wireless transmission still exist, including keeping secure transmission of data from potential compromise. Here, we demonstrate wireless information transfer using a line-of-sight optical architecture with a micromechanical element. In this fundamentally new approach, a laser beam encoded with information impinges on a nonlinear micromechanical resonator located a distance from the laser. The force generated by the radiation pressure of the laser light on the nonlinear micromechanical resonator produces a sideband modulation signal, which carries the precise information encoded in the subtle changes in the radiation pressure. Using this, we demonstrate data and image transfer with one hundred percent fidelity with a single 96-by-270 μm silicon resonator element in an optical frequency band. This mechanical approach relies only on the momentum of the incident photons and is therefore able to use any portion of the optical frequency band-a band that is 10 000 times wider than the radio frequency band. Our line-of-sight architecture using highly scalable micromechanical resonators offers new possibilities in wireless communication. Due to their small size, these resonators can be easily arrayed while maintaining a small form factor to provide redundancy and parallelism.

Dynamically induced robust phonon transport and chiral cooling in an optomechanical system

The transport of sound and heat, in the form of phonons, can be limited by disorder-induced scattering. In electronic and optical settings the introduction of chiral transport, in which carrier propagation exhibits parity asymmetry, can remove elastic backscattering and provides robustness against disorder. However, suppression of disorder-induced scattering has never been demonstrated in non-topological phononic systems. Here we experimentally demonstrate a path for achieving robust phonon transport in the presence of material disorder, by explicitly inducing chirality through parity-selective optomechanical coupling. We show that asymmetric optical pumping of a symmetric resonator enables a dramatic chiral cooling of clockwise and counterclockwise phonons, while simultaneously suppressing the hidden action of disorder. Surprisingly, this passive mechanism is also accompanied by a chiral reduction in heat load leading to optical cooling of the mechanics without added damping, an effect that has no optical analog. This technique can potentially improve upon the fundamental thermal limits of resonant mechanical sensors, which cannot be attained through sideband cooling.

Chiral transport can provide robustness against disorder, resulting in improved resonant modes for sensing and metrology. Here, Kim et al. demonstrate chiral phonon transport, disorder suppression and anomalous cooling without damping in an asymmetrically-pumped optomechanical system.

Low-Power Photothermal Self-Oscillation of Bimetallic Nanowires

We investigate the nonlinear mechanics of a bimetallic, optically absorbing SiN-Nb nanowire in the presence of incident laser light and a reflecting Si mirror. Situated in a standing wave of optical intensity and subject to photothermal forces, the nanowire undergoes self-induced oscillations at low incident light thresholds of <1 μW due to engineered strong temperature-position (T-z) coupling. Along with inducing self-oscillation, laser light causes large changes to the mechanical resonant frequency ω₀ and equilibrium position z₀ that cannot be neglected. We present experimental results and a theoretical model for the motion under laser illumination. In the model, we solve the governing nonlinear differential equations by perturbative means to show that self-oscillation amplitude is set by the competing effects of direct T-z coupling and 2ω₀ parametric excitation due to T-ω₀ coupling. We then study the linearized equations of motion to show that the optimal thermal time constant τ for photothermal feedback is τ → ∞ rather than the previously reported ω₀ τ = 1. Lastly, we demonstrate photothermal quality factor (Q) enhancement of driven motion as a means to counteract air damping. Understanding photothermal effects on nano- and micromechanical devices, as well as nonlinear aspects of optics-based motion detection, can enable new device applications as oscillators or other electronic elements with smaller device footprints and less stringent ambient vacuum requirements.

Classical-to-quantum transition behavior between two oscillators separated in space under the action of optomechanical interaction

We propose a scheme to show that the system consisting of two macroscopic oscillators separated in space which are coupled through Coulomb interaction displays the classical-to-quantum transition behavior under the action of optomechanical coupling interaction. Once the optomechanical coupling interaction disappears, the entanglement between the two separated oscillators disappears accordingly and the system will return to classical world even though there exists sufficiently strong Coulomb coupling between the oscillators. In addition, resorting to the squeezing of the cavity field generated by an optical parametric amplifier inside the cavity, we discuss the effect of squeezed light driving on this classical-to-quantum transition behavior instead of injecting the squeezed field directly. The results of numerical simulation show that the present scheme is feasible and practical and has stronger robustness against the environment temperature compared with previous schemes in current experimentally feasible regimes. The scheme might possibly help us to further clarify and grasp the classical-quantum boundary.

Cavity Cooling of Many Atoms

We demonstrate cavity cooling of all motional degrees of freedom of an atomic ensemble using light that is far detuned from the atomic transitions by several gigahertz. The cooling is achieved by cavity-induced frequency-dependent asymmetric enhancement of the atomic emission spectrum, thereby extracting thermal kinetic energy from the atomic system. Within 100 ms, the atomic temperature is reduced from 200 to 10  μK, where the final temperature is mainly limited by the linewidth of the cavity. In principle, the technique can be applied to molecules and atoms with complex internal energy structure.

Integrated optical force sensors using focusing photonic crystal arrays

Mechanical oscillators are at the heart of many sensor applications. Recently several groups have developed oscillators that are probed optically, fabricated from high-stress silicon nitride films. They exhibit outstanding force sensitivities of a few aN/Hz^1/2 and can also be made highly reflective, for efficient detection. The optical read-out usually requires complex experimental setups, including positioning stages and bulky cavities, making them impractical for real applications. In this paper we propose a novel way of building fully integrated all-optical force sensors based on low-loss silicon nitride mechanical resonators with a photonic crystal reflector. We can circumvent previous limitations in stability and complexity by simulating a suspended focusing photonic crystal, purely made of silicon nitride. Our design allows for an all integrated sensor, built out of a single block that integrates a full Fabry-Pérot cavity, without the need for assembly or alignment. The presented simulations will allow for a radical simplification of sensors based on high-Q silicon nitride membranes. Our results comprise, to the best of our knowledge, the first simulations of a focusing mirror made from a mechanically suspended flat membrane with subwavelength thickness. Cavity lengths between a few hundred µm and mm should be directly realizable.

Cavity-Assisted Measurement and Coherent Control of Collective Atomic Spin Oscillators

We demonstrate continuous measurement and coherent control of the collective spin of an atomic ensemble undergoing Larmor precession in a high-finesse optical cavity. The coupling of the precessing spin to the cavity field yields phenomena similar to those observed in cavity optomechanics, including cavity amplification, damping, and optical spring shifts. These effects arise from autonomous optical feedback onto the atomic spin dynamics, conditioned by the cavity spectrum. We use this feedback to stabilize the spin in either its high- or low-energy state, where, in equilibrium with measurement backaction heating, it achieves a steady-state temperature, indicated by an asymmetry between the Stokes and the anti-Stokes scattering rates. For sufficiently large Larmor frequency, such feedback stabilizes the spin ensemble in a nearly pure quantum state, in spite of continuous measurement by the cavity field.

Cooling a mechanical resonator with nitrogen-vacancy centres using a room temperature excited state spin-strain interaction

Cooling a mechanical resonator mode to a sub-thermal state has been a long-standing challenge in physics. This pursuit has recently found traction in the field of optomechanics in which a mechanical mode is coupled to an optical cavity. An alternate method is to couple the resonator to a well-controlled two-level system. Here we propose a protocol to dissipatively cool a room temperature mechanical resonator using a nitrogen-vacancy centre ensemble. The spin ensemble is coupled to the resonator through its orbitally-averaged excited state, which has a spin–strain interaction that has not been previously studied. We experimentally demonstrate that the spin–strain coupling in the excited state is 13.5±0.5 times stronger than the ground state spin–strain coupling. We then theoretically show that this interaction, combined with a high-density spin ensemble, enables the cooling of a mechanical resonator from room temperature to a fraction of its thermal phonon occupancy.

An efficient cooling mechanism for nanoscale mechanical resonators would help improve their properties for use in sensing applications. Here, the authors demonstrate a strong interaction between NV centres and a resonator and show how it could be harnessed to achieve a large cooling rate.