Optomechanical Coupling Research Articles

Phonon Blockade in a Hybrid Quadratically Coupled Optomechanical System

AbstractPhonon statistics in a hybrid optomechanical system, where a mechanical resonator is quadratically coupled to a cavity and couples with another resonator via Coulomb interaction is studied. It is found that the conventional and unconventional phonon blockade can be both achieved at the same parameter regime, which is confirmed by analytical and numerical results. By analyzing the energy level structure, it is found that the anharmonicity of the system is the joint action of both the Coulomb interaction and the optomechanical coupling, where the nonlinearity introduced by the latter has a more significant effect on one branch of the conventional phonon blockade. In addition, the phonon blockade can be enhanced by introducing the mechanical parametric amplifier with optimal parameters, where the physical mechanism underlying comes from the multi‐pathway destructive interference. It is found that the phonon blockade is fragile toward thermal noise due to the weak quantum interference, which can be overcome by increasing the driving strength and applying the mechanical parametric amplifier with suitable parameters. This work may provide a way to manipulate the phonon blockade and can be helpful to the application of quantum information processing.

Optomechanical Coupling Optimization in Engineered Nanocavities

AbstractIn optomechanics, the interaction between light and matter is enhanced by engineering cavities where the electromagnetic field and the mechanical displacement are confined simultaneously within the same volume. This leads to a wide range of interesting phenomena, such as optomechanically induced transparency and the cooling of macroscopic objects to their lowest possible motion state. In this manuscript, the focus is on designed optomechanical cavities exploiting heterostructures in air‐slot photonic‐crystal waveguides, incorporating different hole shapes and dimensions to engineer and control their optomechanical properties. The aim is to maximize the optical quality factor of the optical cavity, while ensuring optical mode volumes below the diffraction limit. These optimized optical modes interact with in‐plane motional degrees of freedom of the structures achieving high optomechanical coupling rates, thus opening up the possibility of mechanical amplification, nonlinear dynamics and chaos through the optomechanical back‐action.

Kerr-Enhanced Optical Spring.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate the generation of enhanced optical springs using the optical Kerr effect. A nonlinear optical crystal is inserted into a Fabry-Perot cavity with a movable mirror, and a chain of second-order nonlinear optical effects in the phase-mismatched condition induces the Kerr effect. The optical spring constant is enhanced by a factor of 1.6±0.1 over linear theory. To our knowledge, this is the first realization of optomechanical coupling enhancement using a nonlinear optical effect, which has been theoretically investigated to overcome the performance limitations of linear optomechanical systems. The tunable nonlinearity of demonstrated system has a wide range of potential applications, from observing gravitational waves emitted by binary neutron star postmerger remnants to cooling macroscopic oscillators to their quantum ground state.

Taming Brillouin Optomechanics Using Supermode Microresonators

Electrostrictive Brillouin scattering provides a ubiquitous mechanism to optically excite high-frequency (>10 GHz), bulk acoustic phonons that are robust to surface-induced losses. Resonantly enhancing such photon-phonon interactions in high-Q microresonators has spawned diverse applications spanning microwave to optical domains. However, tuning both the pump and scattered waves into resonance usually comes with the cost of photon confinement or modal overlap, leading to limited optomechanical coupling. Here, we introduce Bragg scattering to realize strong bulk optomechanical coupling in the same spatial modes of a micron-sized supermode microresonator. A single-photon optomechanical coupling rate up to 12.5 kHz is demonstrated, showing more than 10 times improvement than other devices. Low-threshold phonon lasing and optomechanical strong coupling are also observed for the 10.2-GHz mechanical mode. Our work establishes a compact and efficient paradigm to optically control bulk acoustic phonons, paving the way toward optomechanical coupling at the single-photon level and providing a powerful engine for large-scale integration of quantum networks in which quantum states are massively transferred and stored. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Photon Blockades in an Optomechanical Cavity with a Bose‐Einstein Condensate in the Strong Coupling Regime

AbstractA proposal is made on how to manipulate photon blockades (PBs) and photon‐induced tunneling (PIT) in an optomechanical cavity with a Bose‐Einstein Condensate. It is shown that the single‐photon blockade (1PB) can emerge with appropriate scattering strength between atoms. Further, by tuning interatomic scattering strength, the switch between 1PB and PIT at the fixed optical detuning can be realized in interatomic repulsion or attraction conditions. The enhancement of 1PB can also be achieved. The scattering control of PBs can be understood from the perspective of the anharmonicity of the energy levels modulated by the interatomic collision. Such a system can be equivalent to a conventional optomechanical system plus an interatomic scattering term. It is found that although there are no PBs in the conventional optomechanical system, in the BEC optomechanical system (BECOMS), PBs can occur at the fixed optical detuning. Moreover, the BECOMS can exhibit stronger 1PB under the same optomechanical coupling intensity. Due to the advantages of intrinsic strong optomechanical nonlinearity and the negligible thermal noise of the mechanical environment, BECOMS is promising for experimental realization of PBs. The results open new possibilities for manipulating few‐photon states in quantum regime in cavity optomechanics with a Bose‐Einstein Condensate.

Intracavity-squeezed Cooling in the via Quadratic Optomechanical Coupling with the Hybrid Optomechanical System

Intracavity-squeezed Cooling in the via Quadratic Optomechanical Coupling with the Hybrid Optomechanical System

Entangling two levitated charged nanospheres through Coulomb interaction

Abstract Limited by the thermal environment, the entanglement of a massive object is extremely difficult to generate. Based on a coherent scattering mechanism, we propose a scheme to generate the entanglement of two optically levitated nanospheres through the Coulomb interaction. Two nanospheres are charged and coupled to each other through the Coulomb interaction. In this manner, the entanglement of two nanospheres is induced either under a weak/strong optomechanical coupling regime or under an ultra-strong optomechanical coupling regime. The charges, radius and distance of the two nanospheres are taken into consideration to enhance the Coulomb interaction, thereby achieving a higher degree of entanglement in the absence of ground-state cooling. The corresponding maximum entanglement can be attained as the dynamics of the system approaches the boundary between the steady and the unsteady regimes. This provides a useful resource for both quantum-enhanced sensing and quantum information processing, as well as a new platform for studying many-body physics.

Unconditional Wigner-negative mechanical entanglement with linear-and-quadratic optomechanical interactions

The generation of entangled states that display negative values of the Wigner function in the quantum phase space is a challenging task, particularly elusive for massive, and possibly macroscopic, systems such as mechanical resonators. In this work, we propose two schemes based on reservoir engineering for generating Wigner-negative entangled states unconditionally. We consider two noninteracting mechanical resonators that are radiation-pressure coupled to either one or two common cavity fields; the optomechanical coupling with the field(s) features both a linear and quadratic part in the mechanical displacement and the cavity is driven at multiple frequencies. We show analytically that both schemes stabilize a Wigner-negative entangled state that combines the entanglement of a two-mode squeezed vacuum with a cubic nonlinearity, which we dub cubic-phase entangled (CPE) state. We then perform extensive numerical simulations to test the robustness of Wigner-negative entanglement attained by approximate CPE states stabilized in the presence of thermal decoherence. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Optomechanically induced transparency/absorption in a 3D microwave cavity architecture at ambient temperature

Leveraging advancements in cavity optomechanics, we explore Optomechanically Induced Transparency/Absorption (OMIT/OMIA) in the microwave domain at ambient temperature. Contrary to previous studies employing cryogenic temperatures, this work exploits a 3D microwave cavity architecture to observe these effects at ambient temperature, broadening the scope of possible applications. The work successfully enhances the optomechanical coupling strength, enabling observable and robust OMIT/OMIA effects, and demonstrating up to 25 dB in signal amplification and 20 dB in attenuation. Operating in the unresolved sideband regime enables tunability across a wider frequency range, enhancing the system’s applicability in signal processing and sensing. The findings herein highlight the potential of optomechanical systems, presenting a simplified, cost-effective, and more feasible approach for applications at ambient temperature.

Optical response properties and bipartite entanglement in a hybrid optomechanical system assisted by Kerr-nonlinearity and amplitude modulated drive field

We theoretically investigate the optomechanical interaction between an optical field and a mechanical mode mediated by a Kerr nonlinear medium inside an optical cavity and simultaneously driven by an external amplitude-modulated pump field and a probe field. We show that switching between bistability and multistability is influenced by the rocking parameter and Kerr nonlinearity. Further, we study the quantum fluctuation dynamics of the system, which shows the quantum coherence and interference effects resulting in the transmission of the probe field from opacity to amplification. We also find that the rocking parameter, Kerr nonlinearity, and the optomechanical coupling influence the transmission spectrum. In addition, we also show that the rocking parameter significantly enhances the optomechanical coupling, which can be a new handle to control the entanglement between the optical and mechanical modes. The results show that such a hybrid optomechanical system has potential application in designing and optimizing all-optical switching and optical sensors.

Atom Mediated Single‐Photon Nonlinearity in a Quadratically Coupled Optomechanical System

AbstractIn this paper, conventional phonon blockade (CPNB) and conventional photon blockade (CPTB) effects, as well as unconventional phonon blockade (UPB) effects, are studied in an optomechanical system with nonlinear interaction between the cavity frequency and the square of the mechanical displacement driven by an external field, where a two‐level atom couples with the mechanical mode and a microwave driving field pumps cavity mode. The second‐order correlation function is analytically calculated, which is in good agreement with the numerical simulation given by the master equation. With energy‐level diagram, the atom‐mechanical mode coupling is found to induces the degeneracy splitting of the states and give the optimal conditions for CPNB and CPTB in this system. With the origin of UPB, the optimal conditions are derived and it is found that the realization of UPB is determined by the two couplings of the cavity and atom with respect to the mechanical mode. Moreover, some discussions on the experimental implementation in this quadratically coupled optomechanical system are presented. This study provides a possible way for realizing single‐photon nonlinearity and can extend the applications of optomechanical systems in the field of quantum optics.

Impacts of spatial symmetries on stimulated Brillouin scatterings in nanoscale silicon waveguides: a theoretical and numerical study considering material anisotropies.

Fully considering the mechanical and photoelastic anisotropies of monocrystalline silicon, the impacts of spatial symmetries on the stimulated Brillouin scatterings (SBSs) in nanoscale suspended silicon waveguides are studied theoretically and numerically based on group theory. First, starting from an assumption that the principal material coordinate system can be arbitrarily orientated in a waveguide with fixed geometry, the silicon waveguides are systematically classified into a number of point groups according to their spatial symmetry features. Thereafter, the symmetry characteristics of physical fields and SBS opto-mechanical coupling characteristics in the silicon waveguides belonging to different point groups are further examined, and the major new findings can be summarized as follows: The SBS opto-mechanical couplings in several kinds of silicon waveguides with certain nontrivial symmetry features exhibit relatively predictable behaviors in that the opto-mechanical coupling coefficients can be deterministically vanishing or nonvanishing under very few constraints, which can thus serve as general symmetry selection rules for SBSs in suspended silicon waveguides. The results obtained in the present study could be a useful theoretical reference for the design of novel SBS-active silicon photonic devices.

Quantum Dynamics of Cavity–Bose–Einstein Condensates in a Gravitational Field

We theoretically studied the quantum dynamics of a cavity–Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) system in a gravitational field, which is composed of a Fabry–Pérot cavity and a BEC. We also show how to deterministically generate the transient macroscopic quantum superposition states (MQSSs) of the cavity by the use of optomechanical coupling between the cavity field and the BEC. The quantum dynamics of the cavity–BEC system specifically include phase space trajectory dynamics, system excitation number dynamics, quantum entanglement dynamics, and quantum coherence dynamics. We found that the system performs increasingly complex trajectories for larger values of the Newtonian gravity parameter. Moreover, the number of phonon excitations of the system can be increased by coupling the cavity–BEC system to Newtonian gravity, which is analogous to an external direct current drive. The scattering of atoms inside the BEC affects the periodicity of the quantum dynamics of the system. We demonstrate a curious complementarity relation between the quantum entanglement and quantum coherence of cavity–BEC systems and found that the complementarity property can be sustained to some extent, despite being in the presence of the cavity decay. This phenomenon also goes some way to show that quantum entanglement and quantum coherence can be referred to together as quantum resources.

A self-excited bistable oscillator with a light-powered liquid crystal elastomer

The nonlinearity in the dynamics of a liquid crystal elastomer-based systems plays an important role when designing and controlling a responsive LCE-based smart system. In this work, we proposed an LCE-based bistable oscillator and investigated its self-excited oscillation behavior. The oscillator consists of a lumped mass, connected by two lateral helical springs, and one liquid crystal elastomer fiber spring which is subjected to a steady light illumination. After inserting the dynamic model of the light-powered LCE fiber into that of the oscillator, the nonlinear vibration response is obtained by using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Different from the reported mono-stable limit circle modes, the self-vibration has a snap-through oscillation mode owing to an opto-mechanical coupling where the light energy can overcome the potential well of the mechanical part. Since the light illumination energy compensates the dissipative energy loss in each nonlinear vibration period, the nonlinear vibration of the LCE-based bistable oscillator is sustainable. We discuss the influence of both the linear and nonlinear parameters on the self-excited vibration response of the bistable oscillator. The nonlinear parameters of the lateral spring, such as the stiffness ratio and the length ratio, as well as the linear parameters of the LCE fiber, including the damping ratio, spring stiffness, light intensity, light contraction coefficient, and gravity, are all taken into consideration in our analysis. Our results reveal that the self-excited vibration can be controlled by adequately tuning these linear and/or nonlinear parameters. The investigation may pave a way for promising applications such as intelligent structural design, energy harvesting, sensing, actuating, and bio-mimic/bio-inspired system using the LCE fiber.

Design and Analysis of Optomechanical Micro-Gyroscope for Angular-Vibration Detection

Micro-gyroscopes based on the Coriolis principle are widely employed in inertial navigation, motion control, and vibration analysis applications. Conventional micro-gyroscopes often exhibit limitations, including elevated noise levels and suboptimal performance metrics. Conversely, the advent of cavity optomechanical system technology heralds an innovative approach to micro-gyroscope development. This method enhances the device’s capabilities, offering elevated sensitivity, augmented precision, and superior resolution. This paper presents our main contributions which include a novel dual-frame optomechanical gyroscope, a unique photonic crystal cavity design, and advanced numerical simulation and optimization methods. The proposed design utilizes an optical cavity formed between dual oscillating frames, whereby input rotation induces a measurable phase shift via optomechanical coupling. Actuation of the frames is achieved electrostatically via an interdigitated comb-drive design. Through theoretical modeling based on cavity optomechanics and finite element simulation, the operating principle and performance parameters are evaluated in detail. The results indicate an expected angular rate sensitivity of 22.8 mV/°/s and an angle random walk of 7.1 × 10−5 °/h1/2, representing superior precision to existing micro-electromechanical systems gyroscopes of comparable scale. Detailed analysis of the optomechanical transduction mechanism suggests this dual-frame approach could enable angular vibration detection with resolution exceeding state-of-the-art solutions.

Steady motional entanglement between two distant levitated nanoparticles

Quantum entanglement in macroscopic systems is not only essential for practical quantum information processing, but also valuable for the study of the boundary between quantum and the classical world. However, it is very challenging to achieve the steady remote entanglement between distant macroscopic systems. We consider two distant nanoparticles, both of which are optically trapped in two cavities. Based on the coherent scattering mechanism, we find that the ultrastrong optomechanical coupling between the cavity modes and the motion of the levitated nanoparticles could be achieved. The large and steady entanglement between the filtered output cavity modes and the motion of nanoparticles can be generated if the trapping laser is under the red sideband. Then through entanglement swapping, the steady motional entanglement between the distant nanoparticles can be realized. We numerically simulate and find that the two nanoparticles with 10 km distance can be entangled for the experimentally feasible parameters, even in room temperature environments. The generated continuous variable multipartite entanglement is the key to realizing the quantum enhanced sensor network and the sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit.

Simulation of optomechanical interaction of levitated nanoparticle with photonic crystal micro cavity.

We propose and analyze theoretically a promising design of an optical trap for vacuum levitation of nanoparticles based on a one-dimensional (1D) silicon photonic crystal cavity (PhC). The considered cavity has a quadratically modulated width of the silicon wave guiding structure, leading to a calculated cavity quality factor of 8 × 105. An effective mode volume of approximately 0.16 μm3 having the optical field strongly confined outside the silicon structure enables optical confinement on nanoparticle in all three dimensions. The optical forces and particle-cavity optomechanical coupling are comprehensively analyzed for two sizes of silica nanoparticles (100 nm and 150 nm in diameter) and various mode detunings. The value of trapping stiffnesses in the microcavity is predicted to be 5 order of magnitudes higher than that reached for optimized optical tweezers, moreover the linear single photon coupling rate can reach MHz level which is 6 order magnitude larger than previously reported values for common bulk cavities. The theoretical results support optimistic prospects towards a compact chip for optical levitation in vacuum and cooling of translational mechanical degrees of motion for the silica nanoparticle of a diameter of 100 nm.

Effects of cross-Kerr coupling on transmission spectrum of double-cavity optomechanical system

We theoretically study the transmission spectrum of the cavity field in a double-cavity optomechanical system with cross-Kerr (CK) effect. The system consists of two tunneling coupling optomechanical cavities with a mechanical resonator as a coupling interface. By doping CK medium into the mechanical resonator, CK couplings between the cavity fields and the mechanical resonator are introduced. We investigate the effects of CK coupling strength on the transmission spectrum of the cavity field, including the transmission rate, nonreciprocity and four-wave mixing (FWM). We find that the transmission spectrum of the probe field can show two obvious transparent windows, which can be widened by increasing the CK coupling strength. For the transmission between the two cavity fields, the perfect nonreciprocity and reciprocity are present and modulated by CK coupling and phase difference between two effective optomechanical couplings. In addition, the effects of the optomechanical and CK couplings on FWM show that the single peak of FWM is split into three symmetrical peaks due to the introduction of the CK effect.

Influence of thermal effects on the optomechanical coupling rate in acousto-optic cavities

Influence of thermal effects on the optomechanical coupling rate in acousto-optic cavities

Controlling Remote Entanglement and One‐Way Steering Via a Squeezed Vacuum Field and an Optical Parametric Amplifier

AbstractA scheme is proposed for generating remote entanglement and one‐way Einstein‐Podolsky‐Rosen (EPR) steering between two mechanical resonators in a cavity optomechanical system. Both mechanical resonators are coupled to a common cavity, which contains an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) and is driven by a squeezed vacuum field. The entanglement and EPR steering can be generated by the squeezed vacuum field and significantly enhanced by the gain of OPA. By manipulating the ratio of two effective optomechanical coupling strengths, the asymmetric EPR steering with excellent controllability on the direction, even the one‐way EPR steering can be achieved. Moreover, both the squeezed vacuum field and the OPA can effectively enhance the robustness of EPR steering against the environment temperature, and the temperature‐dependent one‐way EPR steering is explored. This work paves the way toward generating macroscopic mechanical entanglement and EPR steering with potential applications in quantum information processing.