Cavity Optomechanics with nanomechanical oscillators

In collaboration with Prof. Kotthaus' group at LMU Munich we have realized a near-field cavity optomechanical system. We couple high-Q strained silicon nitride nanomechanical oscillators on an ultra-high finesse microresonator via its evanescent near-field. This approach allows measurements of nanomechanical motion with an imprecision at the standard quantum-limit. Moreover, we show that dynamical backaction purely due to radiation pressure allows creating laser-like oscillations of the nanomechanical oscillators. The demonstrated platform extends cavity optomechanics to nanomechanical oscillators, may impact techniques such as single atom or single spin detection and provides a route to quantum optomechanical experiments.

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