Brillouin Optomechanics in Coupled Silicon Microcavities

We report the observation of coupling between a 3D microwave cavity mode and a bulk mechanical resonator mediated by piezoelectric and radiation pressure effects. The system is composed of a quartz bulk acoustic wave resonator placed inside a microwave re-entrant cavity, which is designed to act as both the electrodes for piezoelectric actuation as well as a 3D resonator. The cavity electromagnetic mode is modulated by a 5 MHz bulk acoustic wave shear mode, which is modeled and experimentally verified using the inputoutput formalism. Through finite element method simulations, we calculate the various contributions to the electromechanical coupling and discusss the potential of the system to reach high cooperativities as well as suitable applications.Nowadays, the pursuit of faster, more secure and efficient communication and information processing demands rigorous and diversified development of highly advanced technologies. To this purpose, hybrid systems have been intensely researched, as they combine the advantages of different platforms while avoiding their specific drawbacks. In particular, microwave devices figure as a rich means of photon-phonon coupling, which is a multifold platform for the investigation of fundamental science and applied physical systems. In this sense, electrostriction has been explored using piezoelectric photonic crystals to couple microwave and optical photons 1,2 , showing that piezomechanics associated to optomechanics is a promising path for the implementation of microwave to optical (MO) interconversion -a convenient route to take advantage of distinct wavelengths in order to promote the optimized information transfer required for modern communication.In this field of cavity optomechanics, device architectures have been diversified with structures such as membrane-in-the-middle cavities 3 , whispering gallery mode resonators 4,5 and photonic crystals 6 demonstrating numerous breakthrough results, such as gravitational wave detection 7 , tests of quantum gravity 5,8 , ground state cooling 9 and optomechanically induced transparency 10 .In parallel, Renning et al. 11 demonstrated valuable features of bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators for several quantum enabled experiments, with a study of highcoherence phonons driven by optical fields, opening new possibilities for the investigation of quantum mechanics using mesoscopic systems, precision measurements and high-fidelity information processing. BAW devices are phonon-confining structures and an acoustic analog to a a) nataliaccar@gmail.com Fabry-Perot cavity 12 , where phonons propagating in a plane are reflected at the boundary of the resonator and the external medium. Such phononic cavities are recognized by their potential to exhibit extremely high mechanical quality factors, of greater than billions at cryogenic temperatures, which is a desirable characteristic for experiments demanding large coherence times 13 . FIG. 1. (a) BAW resonator. (b) Thickness modes driven by an electric field and forming standing shear acoustic wave...

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“…The three forms of photon-phonon coupling can be calculate by the following overlap field integrals 15,16 :…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Piezo-optomechanical coupling of a 3D microwave resonator to a bulk acoustic wave crystalline resonator

Carvalho

Bourhill

Goryachev

et al. 2019

Applied Physics Letters

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“…The coupling factor 𝐺 𝐵 /𝑄 𝑚 can be calculated by numerically computing the mode profile of both optical and mechanical modes using COMSOL Multiphysics ® FEM simulations. In the case of silicon waveguides however, we can already expect that 𝑥-polarized (𝑧-polarized) mechanical modes should have larger gain for FBS [37] (BBS [40]); these modes can be readily identified using Fig. 1 (c).…”

Section: Backward and Forward Scatteringmentioning

confidence: 98%

Designing of strongly confined short-wave Brillouin phonons in silicon waveguide periodic lattices

Zurita,

Wiederhecker,

Alegre

2020

Preprint

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We propose a feasible waveguide design optimized for harnessing Stimulated Brillouin Scattering with long-lived phonons. The design consists of a fully suspended ridge waveguide surrounded by a 1D phononic crystal that mitigates losses to the substrate while providing the needed homogeneity for the build-up of the optomechanical interaction. The coupling factor of these structures was calculated to be 0.54 (W m) −1 for intramodal backward Brillouin scattering with its fundamental TE-like mode and 4.5 (W m) −1 for intramodal forward Brillouin scattering. The addition of the phononic crystal provides a 30 dB attenuation of the mechanical displacement after only five unitary cells, possibly leading to a regime where the acoustic losses are only limited by fabrication. As a result, the total Brillouin gain, which is proportional to the product of the coupling and acoustic quality factors, is nominally equal to the idealized fully suspended waveguide.

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“…Typically, the SBS is due to the interaction of travelling waves, like in waveguides, or in structures where waves can freely propagate, such as azimuthally traveling waves in micro-disks [15]. In this study, optical/mechanical modes are localized, but still travelling along the photonic/phononic crystal forming the OM cavity.…”

Section: B Double Om Cavitymentioning

confidence: 98%

Electromagnetic Amplification of Microwave Phonons in Nonlinear Resonant Microcavities

Mencarelli

Stocchi

Pierantoni

2018

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

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In this contribution, we report on numerical simulation of a multi-physic Electromagnetic/Mechanical problem, as a further step towards the development of GHz circuits based on phonon propagation at micro-and nano-scale. In the future, this kind of circuits is likely to integrate optomechanically pumped phonon sources and detectors, as well as phonon processing components (waveguides, splitters, memories) to process information by means of phonons. In particular, we propose a rigorous approach for the solution of the EM/mechanical system of equations governing light behavior in opto-mechanical cavities, with the help of the Transformation Optics (TO) method. Such kind of calculation allows the development of an efficient generation of GHz to tens of GHz coherent phonon sources, by engineering their propagation or coupling with phonon waveguides.

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Brillouin Optomechanics in Coupled Silicon Microcavities

Cited by 30 publications

References 45 publications

Piezo-optomechanical coupling of a 3D microwave resonator to a bulk acoustic wave crystalline resonator

Piezo-optomechanical coupling of a 3D microwave resonator to a bulk acoustic wave crystalline resonator

Designing of strongly confined short-wave Brillouin phonons in silicon waveguide periodic lattices

Electromagnetic Amplification of Microwave Phonons in Nonlinear Resonant Microcavities

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