Optomechanical Transduction and Characterization of a Silica Microsphere Pendulum via Evanescent Light

TL;DR

This paper investigates the optomechanical response of a silica microsphere pendulum coupled to a fiber, revealing asymmetric transduction spectra and advancing understanding of dissipative optomechanical interactions for cooling applications.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of dissipative optomechanical transduction in a silica microsphere pendulum system.

Findings

Asymmetric transduction spectrum observed and explained by coupled-mode theory.

Optomechanical response depends on external coupling gap.

Experimental results agree with theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Dissipative optomechanics has some advantages in cooling compared to the conventional dispersion dominated systems. Here, we study the optical response of a cantilever-like, silica, microsphere pendulum, evanescently coupled to a fiber taper. In a whispering gallery mode resonator the cavity mode and motion of the pendulum result in both dispersive and dissipative optomechanical interactions. This unique mechanism leads to an experimentally observable, asymmetric response function of the transduction spectrum which can be explained using coupled-mode theory. The optomechanical transduction, and its relationship to the external coupling gap, are investigated and we show that the experimental behavior is in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. A deep understanding of this mechanism is necessary to explore trapping and cooling in dissipative optomechanical systems.