Brillouin Optomechanics

TL;DR

This paper introduces Brillouin optomechanics, exploring phonon-photon interactions mediated by electrostriction and photoelastic effects, with experimental demonstrations of actuation and cooling in microdevices.

Contribution

It presents the concept of Brillouin optomechanics and reports the first experimental demonstrations of actuation and cooling in micro-scale devices.

Findings

Demonstrated stimulated Brillouin optomechanical actuation in microdevices

Achieved spontaneous Brillouin cooling in experiments

Reviewed the fundamental phenomena of Brillouin optomechanics

Abstract

We introduce the concept of Brillouin optomechanics, a phonon-photon interaction process mediated by the electrostrictive force exerted by light on dielectrics and the photoelastic scattering of light from an acoustic wave. We first provide a review of the phenomenon and continue with the first experiments where stimulated Brillouin optomechanical actuation was used in microdevices, and spontaneous Brillouin cooling was demonstrated.