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
Optical cavities with small mode volume are well-suited to detect the
vibration of sub-wavelength sized objects. Here we employ a fiber-based,
high-finesse optical microcavity to detect the Brownian motion of a freely
suspended carbon nanotube at room temperature under vacuum. The optical
detection resolves deflections of the oscillating tube down to 50pm/Hz^1/2. A
full vibrational spectrum of the carbon nanotube is obtained and confirmed by
characterization of the same device in a scanning electron microscope. Our work
successfully extends the principles of high-sensitivity optomechanical
detection to molecular scale nanomechanical systems.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
We report time domain observations of optical instability in high Q silicon nitride whispering gallery disk resonators. At low laser power the transmitted optical power through the disk looks chaotic. At higher power, the optical output settles into a stable self-pulsing regime with periodicity ranging from hundreds of milliseconds to hundreds of seconds. This phenomenon is explained by the interplay between a fast thermo-optic nonlinearity within the disk and a slow thermo-mechanic nonlinearity of the structure. A model for this interplay is developed which provides good agreement with experimental data and points out routes to control this instability.
The coupling of mechanical oscillators with light has seen a recent surge of interest, as recent reviews report. 1,2 This coupling is enhanced when confining light in an optical cavity where the mechanical oscillator is integrated as backmirror or movable wall. At the nano-scale, the optomechanical coupling increases further thanks to a smaller optomechanical interaction volume and reduced mass of the mechanical oscillator. In view of realizing such cavity nanooptomechanics experiments, a scheme was proposed where a sub-wavelength sized nanomechanical oscillator is coupled to a high finesse optical microcavity. 3 Here we present such an experiment involving a single nanomechanical rod precisely positioned into the confined mode of a miniature Fabry-Pérot cavity. 4 We describe the employed stabilized cavity set-up and related finesse measurements. We proceed characterizing the nanorod vibration properties using ultrasonic piezo-actuation methods. Using the optical cavity as a transducer of nanomechanical motion, we monitor optically the piezo-driven nanorod vibration. On top of extending cavity quantum electrodynamics concepts to nanomechanical systems, cavity nano-optomechanics should advance into precision displacement measurements near the standard quantum limit 5 , investigation of mechanical systems in their quantum regime, non-linear dynamics 6 and sensing applications.
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