Quantum capacitance mediated carbon nanotube optomechanics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates strong optomechanical coupling in a suspended carbon nanotube quantum dot system, showing potential for quantum control of vibrations and integration with quantum electronic devices.

Contribution

It reports the first large optomechanical coupling in a carbon nanotube quantum dot system amplified by Coulomb blockade nonlinearity.

Findings

Single photon coupling up to 95 Hz achieved.

Normal mode splitting and quantum control are feasible.

Enhanced optomechanical interaction via Coulomb blockade.

Abstract

Cavity optomechanics allows the characterization of a vibration mode, its cooling and quantum manipulation using electromagnetic fields. Regarding nanomechanical as well as electronic properties, single wall carbon nanotubes are a prototypical experimental system. At cryogenic temperatures, as high quality factor vibrational resonators, they display strong interaction between motion and single-electron tunneling. Here, we demonstrate large optomechanical coupling of a suspended carbon nanotube quantum dot and a microwave cavity, amplified by several orders of magnitude via the nonlinearity of Coulomb blockade. From an optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT) experiment, we obtain a single photon coupling of up to $g_0=2\pi\cdot 95\,\textrm{Hz}$. This indicates that normal mode splitting and full optomechanical control of the carbon nanotube vibration in the quantum limit is reachable in the near future. Mechanical manipulation and characterization via the microwave field can be complemented by the manifold physics of quantum-confined single electron devices.