Master-Slave Locking of Optomechanical Oscillators Over A Long Distance

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a scalable, long-distance optomechanical coupling scheme using light to synchronize two independent mechanical oscillators separated by 3.2 km, enabling potential applications in distributed sensing and quantum networks.

Contribution

It introduces a reversible, light-based coupling method for distant mechanical oscillators, scalable over long distances, and adaptable to complex network configurations.

Findings

Successfully coupled oscillators separated by 3.2 km

Achieved frequency locking with an 80 kHz difference

Scheme is reversible and extendable to networks

Abstract

Frequency-locking and other phenomena emerging from nonlinear interactions between mechanical oscillators are of scientific and technological importance. However, existing schemes to observe such behaviour are not scalable over distance. We demonstrate a scheme to couple two independent mechanical oscillators, separated in frequency by 80kHz and situated far from each other (3.2km), via light. Using light as the coupling medium enables this scheme to have low loss and be extended over long distances. This scheme is reversible and can be generalised for arbitrary network configurations.