Integrated Optomechanical Circuits and Nonlinear Dynamics

Abstract

Chip-scale optomechanical resonators have the advantage of higher Q values, smaller dimensions, and thus a greater potential for scalability and device control. This chapter discusses further integration of chip-scale optomechanic elements on a circuit level. Circuit integrated optomechanics brings a range of additional benefits for both fundamental studies and practical device applications of optomechanics. It takes advantage of many circuit components that have been developed by the nanophotonics community, such as grating couplers, splitters, combiners and low loss waveguides, which can be directly utilized to form scalable circuits for routing optical signals. High quality photonic resonators and band-gap structures, such as microring, microdisk, and photonic crystal nanocavities, can be seamlessly embedded in the circuit for direct interfacing with nanomechanical resonators without suffering from significant optical loss. Homodyne detectors, such as Mach-Zehnder interferometers, are implemented directly as part of the circuit to achieve sensitive, alignment free measurement of mechanical motion. Circuit optomechanics not only leads to further scaling of optomechanical systems but also brings new interaction dynamics in light-mechanics coupling. We will discuss the various radiation dynamics and non-radiation dynamics that are present in circuit optomechanical systems. Integrated Optomechanics and Optomechanical CircuitsLately we have witnessed rapid progress in cavity optomechanics with demonstration of dynamic back-action cooling and amplification of mechanical structures of vastly different length scales. In particular, chip-scale optomechanical resonators