Parametric self pulsing in a quantum opto-mechanical system

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantum opto-mechanical system with a fully quantized third-order parametric interaction, demonstrating stable limit cycles and parametric self-pulsing through two proposed physical realizations.

Contribution

It presents a novel quantum opto-mechanical system exhibiting parametric self-pulsing, with two physical implementations and analysis of its stable limit cycle behavior.

Findings

System can exhibit stable limit cycles.

Energy periodically exchanges between optical and mechanical modes.

Two physical realizations proposed: trapped atom and membrane in the middle.

Abstract

We describe an opto-mechanical system in which the coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom takes the form of a fully quantised third-order parametric interaction. Two physical realisations are proposed: a harmonically trapped atom in a standing wave and the `membrane in the middle' model. The dominant resonant interaction corresponds to a stimulated Raman process in which two phonons are converted into a single cavity photon. We show that this system can exhibit a stable limit cycle in which energy is periodically exchanged between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom. This is equivalently described as a parametric self-pulsing.