Cavity polariton optomechanics: Polariton path to fully resonant dispersive coupling in optomechanical resonators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that cavity polaritons can mediate resonant photoelastic coupling in semiconductor nanostructures, greatly enhancing light-sound interactions without significantly reducing the cavity's lifetime, enabling extremely strong optomechanical coupling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cavity polariton-mediated approach that overcomes dissipation issues, achieving unprecedented optomechanical coupling strengths in resonators.

Findings

Achieves optomechanical coupling factors in the PetaHz/nm range.

Overcomes cavity Q-factor reduction near resonance.

Enables strong photon-phonon interactions without lifetime loss.

Abstract

Resonant photoelastic coupling in semiconductor nanostructures opens new perspectives for strongly enhanced light-sound interaction in optomechanical resonators. One potential problem, however, is the reduction of the cavity Q-factor induced by dissipation when the resonance is approached. We show in this letter that cavity-polariton mediation in the light-matter process overcomes this limitation allowing for a strongly enhanced photon-phonon coupling without significant lifetime reduction in the strongly-coupled regime. Huge optomechanical coupling factors in the PetaHz/nm range are envisaged, three orders of magnitude larger than the backaction produced by the mechanical displacement of the cavity mirrors.