Eliminating anchor loss in optomechanical resonators using elastic wave interference

Zhang, Mian; Luiz, Gustavo O.; Shah, Shreyas Y.; Wiederhecker, Gustavo S.; Lipson, Michal

doi:10.1063/1.4892417

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Phononic confinement, propagation losses and lifetimes are limited by various imperfections such as geometric disorder [29,40,55,[66][67][68], thermo-elastic and Akhiezer damping [25,69], two-level systems [70][71][72] and clamping losses [14,73,74]. Losses in 2D-confined waveguides are typically quantified by a propagation length L m = α −1 m .…”

Section: F Materials Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling phonons and photons at the wavelength scale: integrated photonics meets integrated phononics

Safavi-Naeini

Thourhout

Baets

et al. 2019

Optica

185

167

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Radio-frequency communication systems have long used bulk-and surface-acoustic-wave devices supporting ultrasonic mechanical waves to manipulate and sense signals. These devices have greatly improved our ability to process microwaves by interfacing them to orders-ofmagnitude slower and lower loss mechanical fields. In parallel, long-distance communications have been dominated by low-loss infrared optical photons. As electrical signal processing and transmission approaches physical limits imposed by energy dissipation, optical links are now being actively considered for mobile and cloud technologies. Thus there is a strong driver for wavelength-scale mechanical wave or "phononic" circuitry fabricated by scalable semiconductor processes. With the advent of these circuits, new micro-and nanostructures that combine electrical, optical and mechanical elements have emerged. In these devices, such as optomechanical waveguides and resonators, optical photons and gigahertz phonons are ideally matched to one another as both have wavelengths on the order of micrometers. The development of phononic circuits has thus emerged as a vibrant field of research pursued for optical signal processing and sensing applications as well as emerging quantum technologies. In this review, we discuss the key physics and figures of merit underpinning this field. We also summarize the state of the art in nanoscale electro-and optomechanical systems with a focus on scalable platforms such as silicon. Finally, we give perspectives on what these new systems may bring and what challenges they face in the coming years. In particular, we believe hybrid electro-and optomechanical devices incorporating highly coherent and compact mechanical elements on a chip have significant untapped potential for electro-optic modulation, quantum microwave-tooptical photon conversion, sensing and microwave signal processing.

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Section: F Materials Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling phonons and photons at the wavelength scale: integrated photonics meets integrated phononics

Safavi-Naeini

Thourhout

Baets

et al. 2019

Optica

185

167

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“…The OMOs are physically separated by a narrow gap (∼ 150 nm) which precludes any mechanical connections while the optical evanescent field can still propagate through the gap. Mechanical coupling through the substrate connection is negligible as the mechanical mode we excite is a high Q mode that is well isolated from the substrate [24].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The individual oscillator we use is a double-disk OMO (Figures 1b and 1c) composed of two free-standing silicon nitride circular edges that support high quality (Q) factor optical and mechanical modes [24,25]. The co-localized modes shown in Figure 1c lead to a strong coupling between the optical and the mechanical degree of freedom.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronization and Phase Noise Reduction in Micromechanical Oscillator Arrays Coupled through Light

et al. 2015

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Synchronization of many coupled oscillators is widely found in nature and has the potential to revolutionize timing technologies. Here we demonstrate synchronization in arrays of silicon nitride micromechanical oscillators coupled in an all-to-all configuration purely through an optical radiation field. We show that the phase noise of the synchronized oscillators can be improved by almost 10 dB below the phase noise limit for each individual oscillator. These results open a practical route towards synchronized oscillator networks.Nano-and micromechanical oscillator arrays have the potential to enable high power and low noise integrated frequency sources that play a key role in sensing and the essential time keeping of modern technology [1][2][3][4][5]. The challenge with building scalable oscillator arrays is that micromechanical oscillators fabricated on a chip fundamentally have a spread of mechanical frequencies due to unavoidable statistical variations in the fabrication process [4,[6][7][8][9]. This dispersion in mechanical frequencies has a detrimental effect on the coherent operation in arrays of micromechanical oscillators. Here we show that arrays consisting of three, four and seven dissimilar microscale optomechanical oscillators can be synchronized to oscillate in unison coupled purely through a common optical cavity field using less than a milliwatt of optical power. We further demonstrate that the phase noise of the oscillation signal can be reduced by a factor of N below the thermomechanical phase noise limit of each individual oscillator as N oscillators are synchronized, in agreement with theoretical predictions [10,11]. The highly efficient, low loss and controllable nature of light mediated coupling could put large scale nano-and micromechanical oscillator networks in practice [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].Synchronization is a ubiquitous phenomenon found in coupled oscillator systems [10,19]. Heart beat is a result of synchronized motion of pace maker cells [20], circadian rhythm arises because of coordinated body physiology [21] and global positioning system relies on synchronized operation of clocks. On the nanoscale, synchronization has been experimentally demonstrated in nanomechanical systems coupled through mechanical connections [3], electrical capacitors [9], off-chip connections [6] and through an optical cavity [7,8]. However, these demonstrations were limited to only two oscillators. Achieving synchronization in large micromechanical oscillator networks requires scalable oscillator units and efficient and controllable coupling mechanisms [12,13,22].Here we experimentally demonstrate that arrays of free running micromechanical oscillators can be synchronized when coupled purely through a common electro- magnetic field as predicted by theories [12,13]. A conceptual view of an array of mechanical resonators coupled through light is illustrated in Figure 1a. Each optomechanical oscillator (OMO) possesses a slightly different frequency of mechanical oscillation (Ω i ) and is only connected...

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“…Finally, resonators are mounted on a chip carrier and signal pads are wire-bonded. The use of a thick SOI device layer, and a single lithography and etch step for defining the resonator and tethers significantly reduce the possibility of asymmetry, which could potentially reduce the Q 31 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Approaching the intrinsic quality factor limit for micromechanical bulk acoustic resonators using phononic crystal tethers

Gokhale

Gorman

2017

Applied Physics Letters

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We systematically demonstrate that one-dimensional phononic crystal (1-D PnC) tethers can significantly reduce tether loss in micromechanical resonators to a point where the total energy loss is dominated by intrinsic mechanisms, particularly phonon damping. Multiple silicon resonators are designed, fabricated, and tested to provide comparisons in terms of the number of periods in the PnC and the resonance frequency, as well as a comparison with conventional straight-beam tethers. The product of resonance frequency and measured quality factor (f×Q) is the critical figure of merit, as it is inversely related to the total energy dissipation in a resonator. For a wide range of frequencies, devices with PnC tethers consistently demonstrate higher f×Q values than the best conventional straight-beam tether designs. The f×Q product improves with increasing number of PnC periods, and at a maximum value of 1.2 × 1013 Hz, approaches limiting values set by intrinsic material loss mechanisms.

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Eliminating anchor loss in optomechanical resonators using elastic wave interference

Cited by 22 publications

References 24 publications

Controlling phonons and photons at the wavelength scale: integrated photonics meets integrated phononics

Controlling phonons and photons at the wavelength scale: integrated photonics meets integrated phononics

Synchronization and Phase Noise Reduction in Micromechanical Oscillator Arrays Coupled through Light

Approaching the intrinsic quality factor limit for micromechanical bulk acoustic resonators using phononic crystal tethers

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