Nonlinear cavity optomechanics with nanomechanical thermal fluctuations

Rick Leijssen, Giada R. La Gala, Lars Freisem, Juha T. Muhonen and Ewold Verhagen ()
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Rick Leijssen: Centre for Nanophotonics, AMOLF
Giada R. La Gala: Centre for Nanophotonics, AMOLF
Lars Freisem: Centre for Nanophotonics, AMOLF
Juha T. Muhonen: Centre for Nanophotonics, AMOLF
Ewold Verhagen: Centre for Nanophotonics, AMOLF

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Although the interaction between light and motion in cavity optomechanical systems is inherently nonlinear, experimental demonstrations to date have allowed a linearized description in all except highly driven cases. Here, we demonstrate a nanoscale optomechanical system in which the interaction between light and motion is so large (single-photon cooperativity C0≈103) that thermal motion induces optical frequency fluctuations larger than the intrinsic optical linewidth. The system thereby operates in a fully nonlinear regime, which pronouncedly impacts the optical response, displacement measurement and radiation pressure backaction. Specifically, we measure an apparent optical linewidth that is dominated by thermo-mechanically induced frequency fluctuations over a wide temperature range, and show that in this regime thermal displacement measurements cannot be described by conventional analytical models. We perform a proof-of-concept demonstration of exploiting the nonlinearity to conduct sensitive quadratic readout of nanomechanical displacement. Finally, we explore how backaction in this regime affects the mechanical fluctuation spectra.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms16024

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