Cryogenic optomechanics with a Si<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>membrane and classical laser noise

Jayich, A. M.; Sankey, J. C.; Børkje, Kjetil; Lee, D; Yang, Cheng; Underwood, Mitchell; Childress, Lilian; Petrenko, Andrei; Girvin, S. M.; Harris, Jack

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/11/115018

Cited by 53 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(50 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…1. This assumption is supported by measurements of the properties of known noise sources such as technical laser noise 1 , which is a common concern in optomechanical systems [19,20,21]. As there may exist additional, unknown sources of excess back-action in our measurement, we emphasize that the main result of this work is the collection efficiency of the coupling scheme, and that back-action and noisedriven occupation levels are used only to compare the ideal quantum limits of the device to the SQL.…”

Section: Measurement Imprecision and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Optical coupling to nanoscale optomechanical cavities for near quantum-limited motion transduction

Cohen¹,

Meenehan²,

Painter³

2013

Opt. Express

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A significant challenge in the development of chip-scale cavityoptomechanical devices as testbeds for quantum experiments and classical metrology lies in the coupling of light from nanoscale optical mode volumes to conventional optical components such as lenses and fibers. In this work we demonstrate a high-efficiency, single-sided fiber-optic coupling platform for optomechanical cavities. By utilizing an adiabatic waveguide taper to transform a single optical mode between a photonic crystal zipper cavity and a permanently mounted fiber, we achieve a collection efficiency for intracavity photons of 52% at the cavity resonance wavelength of λ ≈ 1538 nm. An optical balanced homodyne measurement of the displacement fluctuations of the fundamental in-plane mechanical resonance at 3.3 MHz reveals that the imprecision noise floor lies a factor of 2.8 above the standard quantum limit (SQL) for continuous position measurement, with a predicted total added noise of 1.4 phonons at the optimal probe power. The combination of extremely low measurement noise and robust fiber alignment presents significant progress towards single-phonon sensitivity for these sorts of integrated micro-optomechanical cavities.

show abstract

Section: Measurement Imprecision and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Optical coupling to nanoscale optomechanical cavities for near quantum-limited motion transduction

Cohen¹,

Meenehan²,

Painter³

2013

Opt. Express

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(A15). The correlations between radiation pressure shot-noise and the mechanical motion are important in this calculation [35][36][37][38][39][40][41] and must be taken into account.…”

Section: A Approximate Quasi-static Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator

Safavi-Naeini

Gröblacher

Hill

et al. 2013

Nature

532

458

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present the measurement of squeezed light generation using an engineered optomechanical system fabricated from a silicon microchip and composed of a micromechanical resonator coupled to a nanophotonic cavity. Laser light is used to measure the fluctuations in the position of the mechanical resonator at a measurement rate comparable to the free dynamics of the mechanical resonator, and greater than its thermal decoherence rate. By approaching the strong continuous measurement regime we observe, through homodyne detection, non-trivial modifications of the reflected light's vacuum fluctuation spectrum. In spite of the mechanical resonator's highly excited thermal state (10, 000 phonons), we observe squeezing at the level of 4.5 ± 0.5% below that of shot-noise over a few MHz bandwidth around the mechanical resonance frequency of 28 MHz. This squeezing is interpreted as an unambiguous quantum signature of radiation pressure shot-noise.Monitoring a mechanical object's motion, even with the gentle touch of light, fundamentally alters its dynamics. The experimental manifestation of this basic principle of quantum mechanics, its link to the quantum nature of light, and the extension of quantum measurement to the macroscopic realm have all received extensive attention over the last half century [1,2]. The use of squeezed light, with quantum fluctuations below that of the vacuum field, was proposed nearly three decades ago [3] as a means for beating the standard quantum limits in precision displacement and force measurements. Conversely, it has also been proposed that a strong continuous measurement of a mirror's position with light, may itself give rise to squeezed light [4,5]. In this Letter, we present such a continuous position measurement using an engineered optomechanical system fabricated from a silicon microchip and composed of a micromechanical resonator coupled to a nanophotonic cavity. Laser light is used to measure the fluctuations in the position of the mechanical resonator at a measurement rate comparable to the free dynamics of the mechanical resonator, and greater than its thermal decoherence rate. By approaching the strong continuous measurement regime we observe, through homodyne detection, non-trivial modifications of the reflected light's vacuum fluctuation spectrum. In spite of the mechanical resonator's highly excited thermal state (10 4 phonons), we observe squeezing at the level of 4.5 ± 0.5% below that of shot-noise over a few MHz bandwidth around the mechanical resonance frequency of ω m /2π ≈ 28 MHz. This * These authors contributed equally to this work.† Electronic address: opainter@caltech.edu; URL: http://copilot. caltech.edu squeezing is interpreted as an unambiguous quantum signature of radiation pressure shot-noise [6]. The generation of states of light with fluctuations below that of vacuum has been of great theoretical interest since the 1970s [3,[7][8][9]. Early experimental work demonstrated squeezing of a few percent in a large variety of different nonlinear systems, such as neutral...

show abstract

“…Moreover, such a hybrid system can be exploited in optomechanical cavities utilizing NVCs, for instance in membrane-in-the-middle tries 10,26 . Furthermore, the presented system can be used in fluid mechanics applications as shown recently by diamond nanocantilevers 28 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Thin Circular Diamond Membrane with Embedded Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers for Hybrid Spin-Mechanical Quantum Systems

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hybrid quantum systems (HQSs) have attracted several research interests in the last years. In this Letter, we report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel diamond architecture for HQSs that consists of a high quality thin circular diamond membrane with embedded near-surface nitrogen-vacancy centers (NVCs). To demonstrate this architecture, we employed the NVCs by means of their optical and spin interfaces as nanosensors of the motion of the membrane under static pressure and in-resonance vibration, as well as the residual stress of the membrane. Driving the membrane at its fundamental resonance mode, we observed coupling of this vibrational mode to the spin of the NVCs by Hahn echo signal. Our realization of this architecture will enable futuristic HQS-based applications in diamond piezometry and vibrometry, as well as spin-mechanical and mechanically mediated spin-spin coupling in quantum information science. KEYWORDS: hybrid quantum systems, nitrogen-vacancy center, thin circular diamond membrane, harmonic oscillator, Hahn echoThere have been several recent proposals 1-2 to exploit mechanical degrees of freedom to control and couple nitrogen-vacancy centers (NVCs) for applications in quantum information science 1-4 and nano-force sensing [5][6] . For example, mechanical motions of diamond microcantilevers have been detected via the electronic spins of NVCs 7-9 . Such proposals rely on the incorporation of NVCs into well-characterized nano/micro-mechanical structures that behave according to simple models from continuum mechanics. However, the realization of such ideal structures, free from complications like residual stress, is a significant challenge yet to be achieved. Thus, a vital first step is to comprehensively characterize these factors and their influence on the performance of the structures. Furthermore, unlike other materials such as SiN 10 , the manufacturing of large, homogenous, and high-quality thin diamond membranes for the simple, robust and scalable fabrication of diamond nano/micro-mechanical structures is yet to be demonstrated.In this Letter, we report a novel approach to the systematic design, fabrication, and characterization of a circular diamond membrane (hereinafter will be mentioned shortly as "membrane") incorporating NVCs at the average depth of ≈20 nm. The membrane has a diameter of ≈1.1 mm, a thickness of ≈1.2 μm and surface roughness of ≈0.4 nm. To examine the mechanical properties of the membrane, we employed the confocal microscopy technique that uses the fluorescence point spread function (PSF) of individual embedded NVCs as nanosensors to measure the deflection of the membrane under an applied pressure. In this way, and by applying the theory of thin membranes 11 we have inferred an effective thickness of ≈1.2 µm and average radial residual stress of 54 MPa. By means of the spin-mechanical coupling of the NVCs, we employed them as nanoprobes for the motion of the membrane under applied static pressure (DC) and in-resonance vibration (AC), as we...

show abstract

Cryogenic optomechanics with a Si₃N₄membrane and classical laser noise

Cited by 53 publications

References 31 publications

Optical coupling to nanoscale optomechanical cavities for near quantum-limited motion transduction

Optical coupling to nanoscale optomechanical cavities for near quantum-limited motion transduction

Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator

Thin Circular Diamond Membrane with Embedded Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers for Hybrid Spin-Mechanical Quantum Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Cryogenic optomechanics with a Si3N4membrane and classical laser noise

Cited by 53 publications

References 31 publications

Optical coupling to nanoscale optomechanical cavities for near quantum-limited motion transduction

Optical coupling to nanoscale optomechanical cavities for near quantum-limited motion transduction

Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator

Thin Circular Diamond Membrane with Embedded Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers for Hybrid Spin-Mechanical Quantum Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Cryogenic optomechanics with a Si₃N₄membrane and classical laser noise