Rare-earth-mediated opto-mechanical system in the reversed dissipation regime

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a strain-mediated opto-mechanical interaction in the reversed dissipation regime using erbium ions, revealing potential for strong single-photon coupling and hybrid quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel opto-mechanical system leveraging the long-lived states of erbium ions to achieve reversed dissipation in the optical domain.

Findings

Achieved an opto-mechanical coupling rate of 21.7 Hz.

Numerical analysis suggests g_0 can surpass dissipation rates, enabling strong coupling.

Potential extension to highly-coherent hybrid quantum systems.

Abstract

Strain-mediated interaction between phonons and telecom photons is demonstrated using excited states of erbium ions embedded in a mechanical resonator. Owing to the extremely long-lived nature of rare-earth ions, the dissipation rate of the optical resonance falls below that of the mechanical one. Thus, a reversed dissipation regime is achieved in the optical frequency region. We experimentally demonstrate an opto-mechanical coupling rate 21.7 Hz, and numerically reveal that the interaction causes stimulated excitation of erbium ions. Numerical analyses further indicate the possibility of g_0 exceeding the dissipation rates of erbium and mechanical systems, thereby leading to single-photon strong coupling. This strain-mediated interaction moreover involves the spin degree of freedom, and has a potential to be extended to highly-coherent opto-electro-mechanical hybrid systems in the reversed dissipation regime.