Coupling of Light and Mechanics in a Photonic Crystal Waveguide
- Creators
-
Béguin, J.-B.
- Qin, Z.
- Luan, X.
- Kimble, H. J.
Abstract
Observations of thermally driven transverse vibration of a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) are reported. The PCW consists of two parallel nanobeams whose width is modulated symmetrically with a spatial period of 370 nm about a 240-nm vacuum gap between the beams. The resulting dielectric structure has a band gap (i.e., a photonic crystal stop band) with band edges in the near infrared that provide a regime for transduction of nanobeam motion to phase and amplitude modulation of an optical guided mode. This regime is in contrast to more conventional optomechanical coupling by way of moving end mirrors in resonant optical cavities. Models are developed and validated for this optomechanical mechanism in a PCW for probe frequencies far from and near to the dielectric band edge (i.e., stop band edge). The large optomechanical coupling strength predicted should make possible measurements with an imprecision below that at the standard quantum limit and well into the backaction-dominated regime. Since our PCW has been designed for near-field atom trapping, this research provides a foundation for evaluating possible deleterious effects of thermal motion on optical atomic traps near the surfaces of PCWs. Longer-term goals are to achieve strong atom-mediated links between individual phonons of vibration and single photons propagating in the guided modes (GMs) of the PCW, thereby enabling optomechanics at the quantum level with atoms, photons, and phonons. The experiments and models reported here provide a basis for assessing such goals.
Additional Information
© 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). Contributed by H. J. Kimble, September 30, 2020 (sent for review July 15, 2020; reviewed by Tobias J. Kippenberg and Dalziel Wilson). PNAS first published November 9, 2020. We acknowledge sustained and important interactions with A. P. Burgers, L. S. Peng, and S.-P. Yu, who fabricated the nanophotonic structures used for this research. J.-B.B. acknowledges enlightening discussions with Y. Tsaturyan. H.J.K. acknowledges funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Grant N00014-16-1-2399, the ONR Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Quantum Opto-Mechanics with Atoms and Nanostructured Diamond Grant N00014-15-1-2761, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research MURI Photonic Quantum Matter Grant FA9550-16-1-0323, and the National Science Foundation Grant PHY-1205729. Data Availability: All study data are included in this article and SI Appendix. J.-B.B. and Z.Q. contributed equally to this work. Author contributions: J.-B.B., Z.Q., and H.J.K. designed research; J.-B.B., Z.Q., X.L., and H.J.K. performed research; J.-B.B. and Z.Q. contributed new analytic tools; J.-B.B., Z.Q., X.L., and H.J.K. analyzed data; and J.-B.B., Z.Q., X.L., and H.J.K. wrote the paper. Reviewers: T.J.K., École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; and D.W., University of Arizona. The authors declare no competing interest. This article contains supporting information online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.2014851117/-/DCSupplemental.Attached Files
Published - 29422.full.pdf
Submitted - 2007.12900.pdf
Supplemental Material - pnas.2014851117.sapp.pdf
Files
Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC7703560
- Eprint ID
- 106282
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.2014851117
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20201026-153044791
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- N00014-16-1-2399
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- N00014-15-1-2761
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
- FA9550-16-1-0323
- NSF
- PHY-1205729
- Created
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2020-10-26Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field