Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 18–22, 2013; Baltimore, Maryland
Session T41: Focus Session: Nano/Optomechanics III |
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Sponsoring Units: GQI DAMOP Chair: John Teufel, National Institute of Standards and Technology Room: 350 |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
T41.00001: Surprises in three-mode quantum optomechanics: adiabatic quantum state transfer and entanglement by dissipation Invited Speaker: Aashish Clerk The canonical quantum optomechanical system involves a single mechanical resonator interacting with photons in a single mode of a resonant cavity. Attention has recently turned to the additional rich physics possible in systems with many interacting vibrational and photonic modes. In this talk, I'll discuss theoretical work looking at the simplest step in this direction, optomechanical systems with three modes (2 photonic and one mechanical or vice-versa). With appropriate driving, the existence of a ``mechanical dark mode'' in such systems can allow for efficient quantum state transfer that is resilient against mechanical dissipation, similar to adiabatic population transfer schemes in atomic physics. With an alternate choice of driving, the same system can be used to generate a surprisingly large amount of entanglement. This occurs via a dissipative mechanism, where one mode in the system acts as an effective bath for the two modes that are to be entangled. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 8:36AM - 8:48AM |
T41.00002: Optomechanical transducer for microwave-to-optical photon conversion J. Bochmann, A. Vainsencher, D.D. Awschalom, A.N. Cleland Mechanical resonators with highly confined optical and mechanical modes exhibit strong interaction between phonons and photons. At GHz mechanical frequencies and low temperature, nanomechanical resonators enter the quantum regime and can be interfaced with superconducting quantum circuits \footnote{O'Connell, et al. \textit{Nature} \textbf{464}, 697 (2010)}. Here, we present the concept of a quantum transducer between microwave and optical photons. In our approach, the piezoelectric effect maps microwave quantum states to nanomechanical excitations which are up-converted to optical photons by optomechanical interaction. The exceptional properties of aluminum nitride allow the required photonic, nanomechanical and piezoelectric functionality to be integrated in one platform. Experimental progress towards this goal will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 8:48AM - 9:00AM |
T41.00003: State Transfer between a Mechanical Oscillator and Itinerant Microwave Fields Tauno Palomaki, Jennifer Harlow, John John Teufel, Raymond Simmonds, Konrad Lehnert We demonstrate that the state of an itinerant microwave field can be coherently transferred into, stored in, and retrieved from a mechanical oscillator. The mechanical oscillator is coupled to a microwave resonator such that the coupling Hamiltonian is capable of exchanging microwave photons and mechanical phonons by applying a detuned microwave pulse. By shaping the envelope of the detuned microwave pulse, we can ideally capture and release itinerant microwave fields with a particular temporal mode. Crucially, the time to capture and to retrieve the microwave state is shorter than the quantum state lifetime of the mechanical oscillator. Here we demonstrate protocols for optimal transfer and measure their efficiency using coherent states with energy at the single quantum level. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:00AM - 9:12AM |
T41.00004: Electro-optical transduction via a mechanical membrane Corey Stambaugh, John Lawall Both cavity opto-mechanics and cavity electro-mechanics have been studied as means to achieve ground state cooling of mechanical systems. Recent focus has turned to hybrid systems that attempt to convert photons between microwave and optical frequencies through mechanical transduction. This should allow quantum information stored in an electrical cavity to be transferred optically over longer distances. In this talk we describe our hybrid system, a silicon nitride membrane that is coupled to a piezoelectric element and placed within a high finesse Fabry-Perot cavity. This setup allows us to both sense and perturb the mechanical motion of the membrane. Results regarding the coupling between the different domains and the design strategies to optimize these couplings will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:12AM - 9:24AM |
T41.00005: Dispersive optomechanical coupling between a SiN nanomechanical oscillator and evanescent fields of a silica optical resonator Chunhua Dong, Thein Htay Oo, Victor Fiore, Hailin Wang Tensile stressed SiN nanostrings can feature a picogram effective mass and a mechanical Q-factor exceeding a million. These remarkable nanomechanical oscillators can be dispersively-coupled to an ultra-high finesse optical microresonator via its evanescent field [1]. This composite optomechanical system can potentially lead to a cooperativity that far exceeds that of monolithic optomechanical resonators. Here, we report an experimental study coupling a SiN nanostring to evanescent fields of a whispering gallery mode (WGM) in a silica microsphere. The slight deformation of the microsphere enables us to use free-space optical excitation to probe the optomechanical coupling. The dispersive coupling between a nanostring and the evanescent field of a WGM is generally expected to lead to a red shift in the resonance frequency of the WGM [1]. Our experiments, however, reveal a blue frequency shift of the WGM. Detailed experimental studies and possible physical mechanisms for the blue shift will be presented. 1. G. Anetsberger, et al, Nat. Phys. \textbf{5}, 909-914 (2009). [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:24AM - 9:36AM |
T41.00006: Cavity optomechanics with silicon nitride sub-wavelength grating membranes Utku Kemiktarak, Mathieu Durand, Michael Metcalfe, John Lawall In the interest of developing a high frequency, low mass, and high reflectivity optomechanical system, we pattern silicon nitride membranes as sub-wavelength diffraction gratings. This allows us to achieve mechanical quality factors reaching $Q =$ 10$^{6}$, at room temperature, and reflectivities close to $R =$ 99.8{\%}, while simultaneously decreasing the mass of the membrane. We explore the optomechanical interactions, both in the self-oscillation and cooling regimes. In the former regime, we observe a number of mechanical modes competing for self-oscillation and the dynamics of mode competition is determined by the intrinsic damping rates of the mechanical modes and their coupling strengths to the optical mode. In the latter regime, we cool a mechanical mode at 190 kHz from room temperature to below 1 K. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:36AM - 9:48AM |
T41.00007: Exploiting the nonlinear dynamics of a single-electron shuttle for highly regular current transport Michael Moeckel, F. Marquardt, D. Southworth, E. Weig A single-electron shuttle consists of a small metallic island (a quantum dot) resting on a nanomechanical resonator which oscillates between two electrodes. This setup has been suggested as a promising way to deliver single electrons one by one and thereby establish a novel current standard. The precision of charge transport will be determined both by the accuracy of charge quantization in the Coulomb blockade regime and the mechanical frequency. The later is generally affected by several not entirely controllable factors. Among those is the nonlinear dynamics which originates from collisions of the shuttle island with the electrodes at higher oscillation amplitudes. Instead of considering this a nuisance, we propose to rather exploit the nonlinearity to fix the oscillation frequency precisely to an external signal via synchronization. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:48AM - 10:00AM |
T41.00008: Branched comb fingers improve capacitive readout sensitivity to vertical motion in a MEMS sound sensor Richard Downey, Gamani Karunasiri A microelectromechanical (MEMS) device that relies on capacitive readout of vertical, out-of-plane displacements can be made more sensitive by replacing the traditional straight comb fingers with a branched design. A branched structure allows for larger capacitors using shorter fingers. When fabrication design rules limit finger length, a branched design can have greater surface area, greater capacitance, and therefore greater sensitivity to vertical displacements. Applying this concept to a MEMS acoustic direction-finding (DF) sensor, we predict and then demonstrate an approximate doubling of signal output. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 10:00AM - 10:12AM |
T41.00009: Optomechanics and integrated photonics and in aluminum nitride A. Vainsencher, J. Bochmann, D.D. Awschalom, A.N. Cleland Integrated photonic devices based on silicon have proven enormously successful, with low loss and high confinement optical and optomechanical devices. We show that aluminum nitride is also an excellent material for photonic integrated circuits, with an extremely wide bandgap and very significantly strong piezoelectric and electro-optic effects. Optical-grade AlN can be deposited on substrates with a CMOS-compatible process. We demonstrate integrated photonic circuits and optomechanical devices based on this novel material. Operating in the optical telecommunications band, we demonstrate ring resonators with ultrahigh optical Q factors as well as one-dimensional optomechanical crystals operating in the resolved sideband regime with localized 4 GHz mechanical modes. This talk will present recent results with the eventual goal of integrating these devices with superconducting quantum bits. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 10:12AM - 10:24AM |
T41.00010: Control and measurement of an electro-mechanical system with a phase qubit Florent Lecocq, John Teufel, Michael Allman, Katarina Cicak, Fabio Da Silva, Adam Sirois, Jed Whittaker, Joe Aumentado, Ray Simmonds We discuss a hybrid device that merges an electro-mechanical system with a metastable phase qubit. The phase qubit can act as a single photon source and detector, allowing the preparation and readout of a lumped element electrical resonator, whose capacitance is formed by a mechanically compliant vacuum-gap capacitor. Via radiation pressure induced parametric coupling, we can map the quantum state of the 10 GHz electrical resonator on to the long-lived, $\sim$10 MHz fundamental mode of the mechanical oscillator. This work opens the way toward the preparation of complex phonon states of mechanical motion. We will discuss current progress with this device. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 10:24AM - 10:36AM |
T41.00011: Design and Construction of Cryogenic Optomechanical System Donghun Lee, Mitchell Underwood, David Mason, Andrew Jayich, Anya Kashkanova, Jack Harris One key challenge to observing quantum phenomena in a macroscopic mechanical oscillator is reaching its ground state.~To achieve the low temperatures required for this, we utilize resolved sideband laser cooling of a few hundred kHz mechanical oscillator with high mechanical Q (a Si3N4 membrane) inside a high finesse optical cavity, in addition to cryogenically reducing the bath temperature. Realizing high Q and high finesse cavity optomechanical devices in a cryogenic environment requires overcoming a number of challenges. In this talk, we describe the design and construction of such a device working at a bath temperature of 300 mK (in a 3He refrigerator) and suited for operation at lower temperatures (in a dilution refrigerator).~ The design incorporates in-situ commercial piezo actuators (manufactured by Janssen Precision Engineering) to couple externally prepared laser light into the cold optical cavity. The design also incorporates filtering cavities to suppress classical laser noise, and acoustic and seismic isolation of the experiment. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 10:36AM - 10:48AM |
T41.00012: Two-tone experiments and time domain control in circuit nano-electromechanics F. Hocke, H. Huebl, X. Zhou, A. Schliesser, T. J. Kippenberg, R. Gross In the field of optomechanics, a light field trapped in an optical resonator dynamically interacts with a mechanical degree of freedom, enabling cooling and amplification of mechanical motion. This concept of light matter interaction can be transferred to the microwave (MW) regime combining superconducting MW circuits with nanometer-sized mechanical beams, establishing the class of circuit nano-electromechanics. Here, two-tone spectroscopy is a tool to access a wider class of phenomena, employing interference of a pump and a probe tone inside the MW cavity. We discuss electromechanically induced transparency and electromechanically induced absorption employing continuous and pulsed excitation. With the latter technique, we access the dynamics of the hybrid system revealing that the switching dynamics of the transmitted light are not limited by the time constant imposed by the mechanical beam, the slowing of light pulses, and the phonon repopulation of a precooled mechanical mode due to thermal decoherence [1,2]. Our experiments provide a key tool towards full quantum control of electromechanical systems, including squeezing, state transfer and entanglement between mechanical and optical degree of freedom. [1] X. Zhou et al. arXiv:1206.6052 [2] F. Hocke et al. arXiv:1209.4470 [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 21, 2013 10:48AM - 11:00AM |
T41.00013: Reading, writing and squeezing the entangled states of two nanomechanical resonators coupled to a SQUID Guy Cohen, Massimiliano Di Ventra We study a system of two nanomechanical resonators embedded in a dc SQUID. We show that the inductively-coupled resonators can be treated as two entangled qubits with states that can be read from, or written on by employing the SQUID as a displacement detector or switching additional external magnetic fields, respectively. We present a scheme to squeeze the even mode of the state of the resonators and consequently reduce the noise in the measurement of the magnetic flux threading the SQUID. We finally analyze the effect of dissipation on the squeezing using the quantum master equation, and show the qualitatively different behavior for the weak and strong damping regimes. Our predictions can be tested using current experimental capabilities. [Preview Abstract] |
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