Abstract
The idea of extending cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments to sub-wavelength sized nanomechanical systems has been recently proposed in the context of optical cavity cooling and optomechanics of deformable cavities. Here we present an experiment involving a single nanorod consisting of about 10(9) atoms precisely positioned into the confined mode of a miniature high finesse Fabry-Pérot microcavity. We show that the optical transmission of the cavity is affected not only by the static position of the nanorod but also by its vibrational fluctuation. The Brownian motion of the nanorod is resolved with a displacement sensitivity of 200 fm/square root Hz at room temperature. Besides a broad range of sensing applications, cavity-induced manipulation of optomechanical nanosystems and back-action is anticipated.
Highlights
Confining a laser field between two high reflectivity mirrors of a high-finesse cavity can increase the probability of a given cavity photon to be scattered by an atom traversing the confined photon mode [1]
The idea of extending cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments to sub-wavelength sized nanomechanical systems has been recently proposed in the context of optical cavity cooling and optomechanics of deformable cavities
This enhanced coupling between light and atoms is successfully employed in cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments and led to a very prolific research in quantum optics [2,3]
Summary
Confining a laser field between two high reflectivity mirrors of a high-finesse cavity can increase the probability of a given cavity photon to be scattered by an atom traversing the confined photon mode [1] This enhanced coupling between light and atoms is successfully employed in cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments and led to a very prolific research in quantum optics [2,3]. Optomechanical systems combine an optical cavity and a (typically macro- or micron-scale) mechanical oscillator in a single device, leading to an increased coupling between them [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] They have recently advanced into the fields of precision displacement measurement [16], investigation of mechanical systems close to their quantum-ground state [17], non-linear dynamics [18], or sensing applications [19]. We investigate a system for cavity nano-optomechanics in the optical domain, where a 100 nm diameter vibrating nanorod is coupled to a high finesse optical micro-cavity of small mode volume
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