We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate optically tunable nonlinear mechanical damping in a cavity optomechanical system utilizing a partly resolved sideband regime. Optomechanical coupling provides a delayed nonlinear backaction to the mechanical modes, resulting in nonlinear mechanical damping. This optically induced nonlinear damping is observed in the frequency and time domains, and we show using both theory and experiment that it can be tuned via laser detuning. Specifically, we observe positive nonlinear damping in the blue-detuned regime and negative nonlinear damping in the red-detuned regime. We also observe optically mediated cross-nonlinear damping between two mechanical modes: the amplitude of one mode modulates the damping of the other. The presented results show a tunable scheme of nonlinear mechanical damping that will be applicable to various non-trivial systems, governed by nonlinear, nonequilibrium, and non-Hermitian phenomena.
Cavity optomechanics provides high-performance sensor technology, and the scheme is also applicable to liquid samples for biological and rheological applications. However, previously reported methods using fluidic capillary channels and liquid droplets are based on fixed-by-design structures and therefore do not allow an active free-space approach to the samples. Here, we demonstrate an alternate technique using a probe-based architecture with a twin-microbottle resonator. The probe consists of two microbottle optomechanical resonators, where one bottle (for detection) is immersed in liquid an…
Studying the interplay between multiple coupled mechanical resonators is a promising new direction in the field of optomechanics. Understanding the dynamics of the interaction can lead to rich new effects, such as enhanced coupling and multi-body physics. In particular, multi-resonator optomechanical systems allow for distinct dynamical effects due to the optical cavity coherently coupling mechanical resonators. Here, we study the mechanical response of two SiN membranes and a single optical mode, and find that the cavity induces a time delay between the local and cavity-transduced thermal noi…
Optomechanical resonators were fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate that had been implanted with phosphorus donors. The resonators' mechanical and optical properties were then measured (at 6 kelvin and room temperature) before and after the substrate was annealed. All measured resonators survived the annealing and their mechanical linewidths decreased while their optical and mechanical frequencies increased. This is consistent with crystal lattice damage from the ion implantation causing the optical and mechanical properties to degrade and then subsequently being repaired by th…
We introduce a quasinormal mode theory of mechanical open-cavity modes for optomechanical resonators, and demonstrate the importance of using a generalized (complex) effective mode volume and the phase of the quasinormal mode. We first generalize and fix the normal mode theories of the elastic Purcell factor, and then show a striking example of coupled quasinormal modes yielding a pronounced Fano resonance. Our theory is exemplified and confirmed by full three-dimensional calculations on optomechanical beams, but the general findings apply to a wide range of mechanical cavity modes. This quasi…
Using light to measure an object's motion is central to operating mechanical sensors that probe forces and fields. Cavity optomechanical systems embed mechanical resonators inside optical resonators. This enhances the sensitivity of optomechanical measurements, but only if the mechanical resonator does not spoil the properties of the optical cavity. For example, cavity optomechanical detection of resonators made from optically absorbing materials, or whose geometry does not possess suitable spatial symmetry, is challenging. Here we demonstrate a system that overcomes challenges in measuring hi…
Measurement-based control has emerged as an important technique to prepare mechanical resonators in pure quantum states for applications in quantum information processing and quantum sensing. Conventionally this has required two separate channels, one for probing the motion and another one acting back on the resonator. In this work, we analyze and experimentally demonstrate a technique of single-laser feedback cooling, where one laser is used for both probing and controlling the mechanical motion. We show using an analytical model and experiments that feedback cooling is feasible in this mode …
In the framework of the nonsecular perturbation theory based on the Bogoliubov averaging method, an optomechanical system with an asymmetric anharmonic mechanical resonator is studied. The cross-Kerr interaction and the Kerr-like self-interaction of photons and vibration quanta arise in the Hamiltonian. These interactions are induced by both cubic and quartic nonlinearities of oscillations of the mechanical resonator and the cavity-resonator interaction that is linear in mechanical displacements. We demonstrate a bistable behavior of the number of vibration quanta and find that this behavior i…
Controlling the dynamics of mechanical resonators is central to many quantum science and metrology applications. Optomechanical control of diamond resonators is attractive owing to diamond's excellent physical properties and its ability to host electronic spins that can be coherently coupled to mechanical motion. Using a confocal microscope, we demonstrate tunable amplification and damping of a diamond nanomechanical resonator's motion. Observation of both normal mode cooling from room temperature to 80K, and amplification into self--oscillations with $60\,μ\text{W}$ of optical power is observ…
The motion of a mechanical resonator is intrinsically decomposed over a collection of normal modes of vibration. When the resonator is used as a sensor, its multimode nature often deteriorates or limits its performance and sensitivity. This challenge is frequently encountered in state-of-the-art optomechanical sensing platforms. We present a mechanical design strategy that ensures that optomechanical measurements can retrieve information on a single mechanical degree of freedom, and implement it in a sliced photonic crystal nanobeam resonator. A spectral design approach is used to make mechani…
We propose a scheme for enhancing the optomechanical coupling between microwave and mechanical resonators by up to seven orders of magnitude to the ultrastrong coupling limit in a circuit optomechanical setting. The tripartite system considered here consists of a Josephson junction Cooper-pair box that mediates the coupling between the microwave cavity and the mechanical resonator. The optomechanical coupling can be modified by tuning the gate charge and the magnetic flux bias of the Cooper-pair box which in turn affect the Josephson capacitance of the Cooper-pair box. We additionally show tha…
Optomechanical analog of two-color electromagnetically-induced transparency: Photon transmission through an optomechanical device with a two-level system
