Phonon routing in integrated optomechanical cavity-waveguide systems

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates phonon routing in integrated optomechanical systems, enabling tunable signal processing and mechanical coupling between distant cavities, paving the way for advanced phononic information processing and topological phases.

Contribution

It introduces a new optomechanical circuit paradigm with phonon routing capabilities, including tunable delay, filtering, and tight-binding coupling between cavities.

Findings

Demonstrated tunable delay and filter for microwave-optical signals

Achieved direct phonon exchange between distant cavities without dissipation

Showed potential for topological phases in optomechanical lattices

Abstract

The mechanical properties of light have found widespread use in the manipulation of gas-phase atoms and ions, helping create new states of matter and realize complex quantum interactions. The field of cavity-optomechanics strives to scale this interaction to much larger, even human-sized mechanical objects. Going beyond the canonical Fabry-Perot cavity with a movable mirror, here we explore a new paradigm in which multiple cavity-optomechanical elements are wired together to form optomechanical circuits. Using a pair of optomechanical cavities coupled together via a phonon waveguide we demonstrate a tunable delay and filter for microwave-over-optical signal processing. In addition, we realize a tight-binding form of mechanical coupling between distant optomechanical cavities, leading to direct phonon exchange without dissipation in the waveguide. These measurements indicate the feasibility of phonon-routing based information processing in optomechanical crystal circuitry, and further, to the possibility of realizing topological phases of photons and phonons in optomechanical cavity lattices.