Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userMicrofabrication of large area high-stress silicon nitride membranes for optomechanical devices
69
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
In view of the integration of membrane resonators with more complex MEMS structures, we developed a general fabrication procedure for circular shape SiN$_x$ membranes using Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE). Large area and high-stress SiN$_x$ membranes were fabricated and used as optomechanical resonators in a Michelson interferometer and in a Fabry-Perot cavity. The measurements show that the fabrication process preserves both the optical quality and the mechanical quality factor of the membrane.
rate research
Read More
We have measured the optical and mechanical loss of commercial silicon nitride membranes. We find that 50 nm-thick, 1 mm^2 membranes have mechanical Q > 10^6 at 293 K, and Q > 10^7 at 300 mK, well above what has been observed in devices with comparable dimensions. The near-IR optical loss at 293 K is less than 2E-4. This combination of properties make these membranes attractive candidates for studying quantum effects in optomechanical systems.
The recent discovery that silicon nitride membranes can be used as extremely high Q mechanical resonators makes possible a number of novel experiments, which include improved long range vacuum Casimir force measurements, and measurments of the properties of liquid helium below the lambda point. It is noted that in the thermal correction to the Casimir force, the phase velocity of the excitations does not enter, with the force per unit area between parallel plates depending only on the temperature and distance between the plates. Thus it appears as possible to measure the phonon analog of the finite temperature Casimir force in liquid helium.
On-chip actuation and readout of mechanical motion is key to characterize mechanical resonators and exploit them for new applications. We capacitively couple a silicon nitride membrane to an off resonant radio-frequency cavity formed by a lumped element circuit. Despite a low cavity quality factor (Q$_mathrm{E}approx$ 7.4) and off resonant, room temperature operation, we are able to parametrize several mechanical modes and estimate their optomechanical coupling strengths. This enables real-time measurements of the membranes driven motion and fast characterization without requiring a superconducting cavity, thereby eliminating the need for cryogenic cooling. Finally, we observe optomechanically induced transparency and absorption, crucial for a number of applications including sensitive metrology, ground state cooling of mechanical motion and slowing of light.
Si3N4 is an excellent material for applications of nanophotonics at visible wavelengths due to its wide bandgap and moderately large refractive index (n $approx$ 2.0). We present the fabrication and characterization of Si3N4 photonic crystal nanobeam cavities for coupling to diamond nanocrystals and Nitrogen-Vacancy centers in a cavity QED system. Confocal micro-photoluminescence analysis of the nanobeam cavities demonstrates quality factors up to Q ~ 55,000, which is limited by the resolution of our spectrometer. We also demonstrate coarse tuning of cavity resonances across the 600-700nm range by lithographically scaling the size of fabricated devices. This is an order of magnitude improvement over previous SiNx cavities at this important wavelength range.
We show that optomechanical systems in the quantum regime can be used to demonstrate EPR-type quantum entanglement between the optical field and the mechanical oscillator, via quantum-state steering. Namely, the conditional quantum state of the mechanical oscillator can be steered into different quantum states depending the choice made on which quadrature of the out-going field is to be measured via homodyne detection. More specifically, if quantum radiation pressure force dominates over thermal force, the oscillators quantum state is steerable with a photodetection efficiency as low as 50%, approaching the ideal limit shown by Wiseman and Gambetta [Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 108}, 220402 (2012)]. We also show that requirement for steerability is the same as those for achieving sub-Heisenberg state tomography using the same experimental setup.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
