Cavity optomechanics with low-noise crystalline mirrors

摘要

Cavity optomechanics is a rapidly evolving field operating at the intersection of solid-state physics and modern optics.The fundamental process at the heart of this interdisciplinary endeavor is the enhancement of radiation pressure within ahigh-finesse optical cavity. Isolating this weak interaction, i.e. the momentum transfer of photons onto the cavityboundaries, requires the development of mechanical resonators that simultaneously exhibit high reflectivity (requiringlow absorption and scatter loss) and low mechanical dissipation. In a Fabry-Pérot implementation, this is realized byfabricating suspended micrometer-scale mechanical resonators directly from high-reflectivity multilayers. Thus, theproperties of the mirror material—particularly the loss angle and optical absorption—drive the ultimate performance ofthe devices. Interestingly, similar requirements are found in a broad spectrum of applications, ranging from gravitationalwave interferometers to stabilized lasers for optical atomic clocks. This overlap leads to an intimate link betweenadvances in the seemingly disparate areas of macroscopic interferometry (e.g. precision measurement and spectroscopy)and micro- and nanoscale optomechanical systems. In this manuscript, I will outline the fascinating implications ofcavity optomechanics and present proof-of-concept experiments including MHz-frequency resonators aimed at thedemonstration of quantum states of mechanical systems, as well as low-frequency (&1 kHz) devices for the observationof quantum radiation pressure noise. Additionally, I will discuss off-shoot technologies developed in the course of thiswork, such as a numerical solver for the determination of support-mediated losses in mechanical resonators, as well as anew strategy for the realization of ultra-high-stability optical reference cavities based on transferred crystallinemultilayers.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.