Piezo-optomechanical signal transduction using Lamb wave supermodes in a suspended Gallium Arsenide photonic integrated circuits platform

Abstract

Piezoelectric optomechanical platforms present one of the most promising routes towards efficient transduction of signals from the microwave to the optical frequency domains. New device architectures need to be developed in order to achieve the stringent requirements for building efficient quantum transducers. In this work, we utilize the mechanical supermode principle to improve the overall microwave to optical transduction efficiency, by fabricating Lamb wave resonators that are hybridized with the mechanical breathing modes of a rib waveguide in a suspended gallium arsenide (GaAs) photonic integrated circuits (PIC) platform. Combining the strong elasto-optic interactions available in GaAs with the increased phonon injection efficiency enabled by this architecture, we demonstrate signal transduction up to 7 GHz, and an increase in transduction efficiency by ≈ 25× for the hybridized mode (fm ≈ 2 GHz), using this approach. We also outline routes for improving device performance to enable quantum transduction within this platform.