Electro-mechanical Casimir effect

TL;DR

This paper proposes a feasible hybrid system combining piezoelectric resonators and superconducting cavities to generate measurable photons from vacuum via the dynamical Casimir effect, potentially advancing experimental verification.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electro-mechanical setup for observing the dynamical Casimir effect using current technology, bridging mechanical motion and quantum photon generation.

Findings

Predicts measurable photon generation rates from the proposed system

Suggests enhancements with superconducting metamaterials to increase photon output

Demonstrates feasibility of experimental realization with existing devices

Abstract

The dynamical Casimir effect is an intriguing phenomenon in which photons are generated from vacuum due to a non-adiabatic change in some boundary conditions. In particular, it connects the motion of an accelerated mechanical mirror to the generation of photons. While pioneering experiments demonstrating this effect exist, a conclusive measurement involving a mechanical generation is still missing. We show that a hybrid system consisting of a piezoelectric mechanical resonator coupled to a superconducting cavity may allow to electro-mechanically generate measurable photons from vacuum, intrinsically associated to the dynamical Casimir effect. Such an experiment may be achieved with current technology, based on film bulk acoustic resonators directly coupled to a superconducting cavity. Our results predict a measurable photon generation rate, which can be further increased through additional improvements such as using superconducting metamaterials.