A chip-scale integrated cavity-electro-optomechanics platform

TL;DR

This paper introduces a chip-scale integrated platform combining optomechanical and electromechanical nanocavities, enabling electrical tuning and control of optical and mechanical interactions for advanced sensing and signal conversion.

Contribution

It presents a novel integrated nanocavity system that couples mechanical, optical, and electrical degrees of freedom on a chip, allowing wide-range electrical tuning and control of optomechanical effects.

Findings

Electrical tuning of optical resonances achieved

Demonstrated mechanical amplification and cooling

Potential for low-noise optical read-out and sensing

Abstract

We present an integrated optomechanical and electromechanical nanocavity, in which a common mechanical degree of freedom is coupled to an ultrahigh-Q photonic crystal defect cavity and an electrical circuit. The sys- tem allows for wide-range, fast electrical tuning of the optical nanocavity resonances, and for electrical control of optical radiation pressure back-action effects such as mechanical amplification (phonon lasing), cooling, and stiffening. These sort of integrated devices offer a new means to efficiently interconvert weak microwave and optical signals, and are expected to pave the way for a new class of micro-sensors utilizing optomechanical back-action for thermal noise reduction and low-noise optical read-out.