Low Power Resonant Optical Excitation of an Optomechanical Cavity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates low-power optical excitation of an optomechanical cavity, achieving mechanical motion with only 200 nW of optical power and analyzing its dependence on various parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a method for resonant optical excitation of an optomechanical cavity at ultra-low power levels and studies the effects of pump power and quality factor on motion.

Findings

Mechanical motion observed at 200 nW power

Response depends on pump power and probe power

Amplitude varies with mechanical quality factor

Abstract

We demonstrate the actuation of a double beam opto-mechanical cavity with a sinusoidally varying optical input power. We observe the driven mechanical motion with only 200 nW coupled to the optical cavity mode. We also investigate the pump power dependence of the radio-frequency response for both the driving power and the probe power. Finally, we investigate the dependence of the amplitude of the mechanical motion on mechanical cavity quality factor.