Cavity nano-optomechanics: a nanomechanical system in a high finesse optical cavity

摘要

The coupling of mechanical oscillators with light has seen a recent surge ofinterest, as recent reviews report.[1, 2] This coupling is enhanced whenconfining light in an optical cavity where the mechanical oscillator isintegrated as back- mirror or movable wall. At the nano-scale, theoptomechanical coupling increases further thanks to a smaller optomechanicalinteraction volume and reduced mass of the mechanical oscillator. In view ofrealizing such cavity nano- optomechanics experiments, a scheme was proposedwhere a sub-wavelength sized nanomechanical oscillator is coupled to a highfinesse optical microcavity.[3] Here we present such an experiment involving asingle nanomechanical rod precisely positioned into the confined mode of aminiature Fabry-P\'erot cavity.[4] We describe the employed stabilized cavityset-up and related finesse measurements. We proceed characterizing the nanorodvibration properties using ultrasonic piezo-actuation methods. Using theoptical cavity as a transducer of nanomechanical motion, we monitor opticallythe piezo-driven nanorod vibration. On top of extending cavity quantumelectrodynamics concepts to nanomechanical systems, cavity nano-optomechanicsshould advance into precision displacement measurements near the standardquantum limit [5], investigation of mechanical systems in their quantum regime,non-linear dynamics [6] and sensing applications.