Frequency control and coherent excitation transfer in a nanostring resonator network

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to control and couple two nanostring resonators mechanically, enabling coherent excitation transfer and classical analogs of quantum phenomena like Rabi oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel frequency tuning mechanism for nanomechanical resonators using geometric nonlinearity, facilitating strong coupling and coherent dynamics control.

Findings

Independent frequency control via nonlinear pre-stress tuning

Observation of mode splitting and classical Rabi oscillations

Demonstration of adiabatic and diabatic transitions in the resonator network

Abstract

Coupling, synchronization, and non-linear dynamics of resonator modes are omnipresent in nature and highly relevant for a multitude of applications ranging from lasers to Josephson arrays and spin torque oscillators. Nanomechanical resonators are ideal candidates to study these effects on a fundamental level and to realize all-mechanical platforms for information processing and storage. For larger resonator networks, however, this requires the ability to tune the mode frequencies selectively and to operate the resonators in the strong coupling regime. Here, we present a proof-of-principle realization of a resonator network consisting of two high-quality nanostring resonators, coupled mechanically by a shared support. First, we demonstrate that we can control the fundamental mode frequencies of both nanostrings independently by a strong drive tone resonant with one of the higher harmonics of the network, rendering local control gates redundant. The tuning mechanism relies on an effective increase of the pre-stress in a highly excited nanostring, known as geometric nonlinearity. Using this selective frequency control of the individual nanomechanical resonators, we investigate the coherent dynamics of the resonator network, which is a classical model system showing several of the characteristic features of strongly coupled quantum systems. In particular, we demonstrate mode splitting, classical Rabi oscillations, as well as adiabatic and diabatic transitions between the coupled states representing the classical analog of Landau-Zener tunneling. Therefore, this coupling and tuning concept opens the path to a selective phonon transfer between two spatially separated mechanical resonators.