244 research outputs found
A chip-scale integrated cavity-electro-optomechanics platform
We present an integrated optomechanical and electromechanical nanocavity, in
which a common mechanical degree of freedom is coupled to an ultrahigh-Q
photonic crystal defect cavity and an electrical circuit. The sys- tem allows
for wide-range, fast electrical tuning of the optical nanocavity resonances,
and for electrical control of optical radiation pressure back-action effects
such as mechanical amplification (phonon lasing), cooling, and stiffening.
These sort of integrated devices offer a new means to efficiently interconvert
weak microwave and optical signals, and are expected to pave the way for a new
class of micro-sensors utilizing optomechanical back-action for thermal noise
reduction and low-noise optical read-out.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
Control design for inhomogeneous broadening compensation in single-photon transducers
A transducer of single photons between microwave and optical frequencies can be used to realize quantum communication over optical fiber links between distant superconducting quantum computers. A promising scalable approach to constructing such a transducer is to use ensembles of quantum emitters interacting simultaneously with electromagnetic fields at optical and microwave frequencies. However, inhomogeneous broadening in the transition frequencies of the emitters can be detrimental to this collective action. In this article, we utilise a gradient-based optimization strategy to design the temporal shape of the laser field driving the transduction system to mitigate the effects of inhomogeneous broadening. We study the improvement of transduction efficiencies as a function of inhomogeneous broadening in different single-emitter cooperativity regimes and correlate it with a restoration of superradiance effects in the emitter ensembles. Furthermore, to assess the optimality of our pulse designs, we provide certifiable bounds on the design problem and compare them to the achieved performance
Opportunistic dose amplification for proton and carbon ion therapy via capture of internally generated thermal neutrons
© 2018, The Author(s). This paper presents Neutron Capture Enhanced Particle Therapy (NCEPT), a method for enhancing the radiation dose delivered to a tumour relative to surrounding healthy tissues during proton and carbon ion therapy by capturing thermal neutrons produced inside the treatment volume during irradiation. NCEPT utilises extant and in-development boron-10 and gadolinium-157-based drugs from the related field of neutron capture therapy. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that a typical proton or carbon ion therapy treatment plan generates an approximately uniform thermal neutron field within the target volume, centred around the beam path. The tissue concentrations of neutron capture agents required to obtain an arbitrary 10% increase in biological effective dose are estimated for realistic treatment plans, and compared to concentrations previously reported in the literature. We conclude that the proposed method is theoretically feasible, and can provide a worthwhile improvement in the dose delivered to the tumour relative to healthy tissue with readily achievable concentrations of neutron capture enhancement drugs
Optomechanical circuits for nanomechanical continuous variable quantum state processing
We propose and analyze a nanomechanical architecture where light is used to
perform linear quantum operations on a set of many vibrational modes. Suitable
amplitude modulation of a single laser beam is shown to generate squeezing,
entanglement, and state-transfer between modes that are selected according to
their mechanical oscillation frequency. Current optomechanical devices based on
photonic crystals may provide a platform for realizing this scheme.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Using dark modes for high-fidelity optomechanical quantum state transfer
In a recent publication [Y.D. Wang and A.A. Clerk, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108,
153603 (2012)], we demonstrated that one can use interference to significantly
increase the fidelity of state transfer between two electromagnetic cavities
coupled to a common mechanical resonator over a naive sequential-transfer
scheme based on two swap operations. This involved making use of a delocalized
electromagnetic mode which is decoupled from the mechanical resonator, a
so-called "mechanically-dark" mode. Here, we demonstrate the existence of a new
"hybrid" state transfer scheme which incorporates the best elements of the
dark-mode scheme (protection against mechanical dissipation) and the
double-swap scheme (fast operation time). Importantly, this new scheme also
does not require the mechanical resonator to be prepared initially in its
ground state. We also provide additional details on the previously-described
interference-enhanced transfer schemes, and provide an enhanced discussion of
how the interference physics here is intimately related to the optomechanical
analogue of electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT). We also compare the
various transfer schemes over a wide range of relevant experimental parameters,
producing a "phase diagram" showing the the optimal transfer scheme for
different points in parameter space.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures NJP 14 (Focus issue on Optomechanics
Surface-plasmon mode hybridization in subwavelength microdisk lasers
Hybridization of surface-plasmon and dielectric waveguide whispering-gallery modes are demonstrated in a semiconductor microdisk laser cavity of subwavelength proportions. A metal layer is deposited on top of the semiconductor microdisk, the radius of which is systematically varied to enable mode hybridization between surface-plasmon and dielectric modes. The anticrossing behavior of the two cavity mode types is experimentally observed via photoluminescence spectroscopy and optically pumped lasing action at a wavelength of λ ~1.3 µm is achieved at room temperature
Cavity optomechanics with Si3N4 membranes at cryogenic temperatures
We describe a cryogenic cavity-optomechanical system that combines Si3N4
membranes with a mechanically-rigid Fabry-Perot cavity. The extremely high
quality-factor frequency products of the membranes allow us to cool a MHz
mechanical mode to a phonon occupation of less than 10, starting at a bath
temperature of 5 kelvin. We show that even at cold temperatures
thermally-occupied mechanical modes of the cavity elements can be a limitation,
and we discuss methods to reduce these effects sufficiently to achieve ground
state cooling. This promising new platform should have versatile uses for
hybrid devices and searches for radiation pressure shot noise.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, submitted to New Journal of Physic
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