Cavity piezomechanical strong coupling and frequency conversion on an aluminum nitride chip

TL;DR

This paper proposes schemes for achieving strong piezomechanical coupling in aluminum nitride microstructures, enabling efficient microwave-optical frequency conversion for hybrid quantum applications.

Contribution

It introduces feasible on-chip aluminum nitride devices with strong coupling regimes, combining piezoelectric effects with microwave and optical modes.

Findings

Strong coupling regime is achievable in aluminum nitride microstructures.

Coherent microwave-optical conversion with high efficiency is demonstrated.

Potential for hybrid quantum system applications is established.

Abstract

Schemes to achieve strong coupling between mechanical modes of aluminum nitride microstructures and microwave cavity modes due to the piezoelectric effect are proposed. We show that the strong coupling regime is feasible for an on-chip aluminum nitride device that is either enclosed by a three-dimensional microwave cavity or integrated with a superconducting coplanar resonator. Combining with optomechanics, the piezomechanical strong coupling permits coherent conversion between microwave and optical modes with high efficiency. Hence, the piezomechanical system will be an efficient transducer for applications in hybrid quantum systems.