9 research outputs found
Observation of opto-mechanical multistability in a high Q torsion balance oscillator
We observe the opto-mechanical multistability of a macroscopic torsion
balance oscillator. The torsion oscillator forms the moving mirror of a
hemi-spherical laser light cavity. When a laser beam is coupled into this
cavity, the radiation pressure force of the intra-cavity beam adds to the
torsion wire's restoring force, forming an opto-mechanical potential. In the
absence of optical damping, up to 23 stable trapping regions were observed due
to local light potential minima over a range of 4 micrometer oscillator
displacement. Each of these trapping positions exhibits optical spring
properties. Hysteresis behavior between neighboring trapping positions is also
observed. We discuss the prospect of observing opto-mechanical stochastic
resonance, aiming at enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in gravity
experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
A parametric symmetry breaking transducer
Force detectors rely on resonators to transduce forces into a readable
signal. Usually these resonators operate in the linear regime and their signal
appears amidst a competing background comprising thermal or quantum
fluctuations as well as readout noise. Here, we demonstrate that a parametric
symmetry breaking transduction leads to a novel and robust nonlinear force
detection in the presence of noise. The force signal is encoded in the
frequency at which the system jumps between two phase states which are
inherently protected against phase noise. Consequently, the transduction
effectively decouples from readout noise channels. For a controlled
demonstration of the method, we experiment with a macroscopic doubly-clamped
string. Our method provides a promising new paradigm for high-precision force
detection.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Photon-Atom Coupling with Parabolic Mirrors
Efficient coupling of light to single atomic systems has gained considerable
attention over the past decades. This development is driven by the continuous
growth of quantum technologies. The efficient coupling of light and matter is
an enabling technology for quantum information processing and quantum
communication. And indeed, in recent years much progress has been made in this
direction. But applications aside, the interaction of photons and atoms is a
fundamental physics problem. There are various possibilities for making this
interaction more efficient, among them the apparently 'natural' attempt of
mode-matching the light field to the free-space emission pattern of the atomic
system of interest. Here we will describe the necessary steps of implementing
this mode-matching with the ultimate aim of reaching unit coupling efficiency.
We describe the use of deep parabolic mirrors as the central optical element of
a free-space coupling scheme, covering the preparation of suitable modes of the
field incident onto these mirrors as well as the location of an atom at the
mirror's focus. Furthermore, we establish a robust method for determining the
efficiency of the photon-atom coupling.Comment: Book chapter in compilation "Engineering the Atom-Photon Interaction"
published by Springer in 2015, edited by A. Predojevic and M. W. Mitchell,
ISBN 9783319192307, http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319192307. Only
change to version1: now with hyperlinks to arXiv eprints of other book
chapters mentioned in this on