We demonstrate the analog of electromagnetically induced transparency in a room temperature cavity\ud optomechanics setup formed by a thin semitransparent membrane within a Fabry-P´erot cavity. Due to destructive\ud interference, a weak probe field is completely reflected by the cavity when the pump beam is resonant with\ud the motional red sideband of the cavity. Under this condition we infer a significant slowing down of light of\ud hundreds of microseconds, which is easily tuned by shifting the membrane along the cavity axis.We also observe\ud the associated phenomenon of electromagnetically induced amplification which occurs due to constructive\ud interference when the pump is resonant with the blue sideband

A minimal observable length is a common feature of theories that aim to merge quantum physics and gravity. Quantum mechanically, this concept is associated with a nonzero minimal uncertainty in position measurements, which is encoded in deformed commutation relations. In spite of increasing theoretical interest, the subject suffers from the complete lack of dedicated experiments and bounds to the deformation parameters have just been extrapolated from indirect measurements. As recently proposed, low-energy mechanical oscillators could allow to reveal the effect of a modified commutator. Here we analyze the free evolution of high-quality factor micro- and nano-oscillators, spanning a wide range of masses around the Planck mass mP (≈22 μg). The direct check against a model of deformed dynamics substantially lowers the previous limits on the parameters quantifying the commutator deformation.

We study the quantum dynamics of the cavity optomechanical system formed by a Fabry-Perot cavity with a thin vibrating membrane at its center. We determine in particular to what extent optical absorption by the membrane hinders reaching a quantum regime for the cavity-membrane system. We show that even though membrane absorption may significantly lower the cavity finesse and also heat the membrane, one can still simultaneously achieve ground state cooling of a vibrational mode of the membrane and stationary optomechanical entanglement with state-of-the-art apparatuses.