63 research outputs found
Optomechanical characterization of acoustic modes in a mirror
We present an experimental study of the internal mechanical vibration modes
of a mirror. We determine the frequency repartition of acoustic resonances via
a spectral analysis of the Brownian motion of the mirror, and the spatial
profile of the acoustic modes by monitoring their mechanical response to a
resonant radiation pressure force swept across the mirror surface. We have
applied this technique to mirrors with cylindrical and plano-convex geometries,
and compared the experimental results to theoretical predictions. We have in
particular observed the gaussian modes predicted for plano-convex mirrors.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, RevTe
Radiation-pressure cooling and optomechanical instability of a micro-mirror
Recent experimental progress in table-top experiments or gravitational-wave
interferometers has enlightened the unique displacement sensitivity offered by
optical interferometry. As the mirrors move in response to radiation pressure,
higher power operation, though crucial for further sensitivity enhancement,
will however increase quantum effects of radiation pressure, or even jeopardize
the stable operation of the detuned cavities proposed for next-generation
interferometers. The appearance of such optomechanical instabilities is the
result of the nonlinear interplay between the motion of the mirrors and the
optical field dynamics. In a detuned cavity indeed, the displacements of the
mirror are coupled to intensity fluctuations, which modifies the effective
dynamics of the mirror. Such "optical spring" effects have already been
demonstrated on the mechanical damping of an electromagnetic waveguide with a
moving wall, on the resonance frequency of a specially designed flexure
oscillator, and through the optomechanical instability of a silica
micro-toroidal resonator. We present here an experiment where a
micro-mechanical resonator is used as a mirror in a very high-finesse optical
cavity and its displacements monitored with an unprecedented sensitivity. By
detuning the cavity, we have observed a drastic cooling of the micro-resonator
by intracavity radiation pressure, down to an effective temperature of 10 K. We
have also obtained an efficient heating for an opposite detuning, up to the
observation of a radiation-pressure induced instability of the resonator.
Further experimental progress and cryogenic operation may lead to the
experimental observation of the quantum ground state of a mechanical resonator,
either by passive or active cooling techniques
Resolved Sideband Cooling of a Micromechanical Oscillator
Micro- and nanoscale opto-mechanical systems provide radiation pressure
coupling of optical and mechanical degree of freedom and are actively pursued
for their ability to explore quantum mechanical phenomena of macroscopic
objects. Many of these investigations require preparation of the mechanical
system in or close to its quantum ground state. Remarkable progress in ground
state cooling has been achieved for trapped ions and atoms confined in optical
lattices. Imperative to this progress has been the technique of resolved
sideband cooling, which allows overcoming the inherent temperature limit of
Doppler cooling and necessitates a harmonic trapping frequency which exceeds
the atomic species' transition rate. The recent advent of cavity back-action
cooling of mechanical oscillators by radiation pressure has followed a similar
path with Doppler-type cooling being demonstrated, but lacking inherently the
ability to attain ground state cooling as recently predicted. Here we
demonstrate for the first time resolved sideband cooling of a mechanical
oscillator. By pumping the first lower sideband of an optical microcavity,
whose decay rate is more than twenty times smaller than the eigen-frequency of
the associated mechanical oscillator, cooling rates above 1.5 MHz are attained.
Direct spectroscopy of the motional sidebands reveals 40-fold suppression of
motional increasing processes, which could enable reaching phonon occupancies
well below unity (<0.03). Elemental demonstration of resolved sideband cooling
as reported here should find widespread use in opto-mechanical cooling
experiments. Apart from ground state cooling, this regime allows realization of
motion measurement with an accuracy exceeding the standard quantum limit.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Actuation of Micro-Optomechanical Systems Via Cavity-Enhanced Optical Dipole Forces
We demonstrate a new type of optomechanical system employing a movable,
micron-scale waveguide evanescently-coupled to a high-Q optical microresonator.
Micron-scale displacements of the waveguide are observed for
milliwatt(mW)-level optical input powers. Measurement of the spatial variation
of the force on the waveguide indicates that it arises from a cavity-enhanced
optical dipole force due to the stored optical field of the resonator. This
force is used to realize an all-optical tunable filter operating with sub-mW
control power. A theoretical model of the system shows the maximum achievable
force to be independent of the intrinsic Q of the optical resonator and to
scale inversely with the cavity mode volume, suggesting that such forces may
become even more effective as devices approach the nanoscale.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. High resolution version available at
(http://copilot.caltech.edu/publications/CEODF_hires.pdf). For associated
movie, see (http://copilot.caltech.edu/research/optical_forces/index.htm
Dynamical Coupling between a Bose-Einstein Condensate and a Cavity Optical Lattice
A Bose-Einstein condensate is dispersively coupled to a single mode of an
ultra-high finesse optical cavity. The system is governed by strong
interactions between the atomic motion and the light field even at the level of
single quanta. While coherently pumping the cavity mode the condensate is
subject to the cavity optical lattice potential whose depth depends nonlinearly
on the atomic density distribution. We observe bistability already below the
single photon level and strong back-action dynamics which tunes the system
periodically out of resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Continuous variable entanglement by radiation pressure
We show that the radiation pressure of an intense optical field impinging on
a perfectly reflecting vibrating mirror is able to entangle in a robust way the
first two optical sideband modes. Under appropriate conditions, the generated
entangled state is of EPR type [A. Einstein, {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. {\bf 47},
777 (1935)].Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Quantum noise in second generation, signal-recycled laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors
It has long been thought that the sensitivity of laser interferometric
gravitational-wave detectors is limited by the free-mass standard quantum
limit, unless radical redesigns of the interferometers or modifications of
their input/output optics are introduced. Within a fully quantum-mechanical
approach we show that in a second-generation interferometer composed of arm
cavities and a signal recycling cavity, e.g., the LIGO-II configuration, (i)
quantum shot noise and quantum radiation-pressure-fluctuation noise are
dynamically correlated, (ii) the noise curve exhibits two resonant dips, (iii)
the Standard Quantum Limit can be beaten by a factor of 2, over a frequency
range \Delta f/f \sim 1, but at the price of increasing noise at lower
frequencies.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures; few misprints corrected and some references
adde
Quantum noise in the position measurement of a cavity mirror undergoing Brownian motion
We perform a quantum theoretical calculation of the noise power spectrum for
a phase measurement of the light output from a coherently driven optical cavity
with a freely moving rear mirror. We examine how the noise resulting from the
quantum back action appears among the various contributions from other noise
sources. We do not assume an ideal (homodyne) phase measurement, but rather
consider phase modulation detection, which we show has a different shot noise
level. We also take into account the effects of thermal damping of the mirror,
losses within the cavity, and classical laser noise. We relate our theoretical
results to experimental parameters, so as to make direct comparisons with
current experiments simple. We also show that in this situation, the standard
Brownian motion master equation is inadequate for describing the thermal
damping of the mirror, as it produces a spurious term in the steady-state phase
fluctuation spectrum. The corrected Brownian motion master equation [L. Diosi,
Europhys. Lett. {\bf 22}, 1 (1993)] rectifies this inadequacy.Comment: 12 pages revtex, 2 figure
Conversion of conventional gravitational-wave interferometers into QND interferometers by modifying their input and/or output optics
The LIGO-II gravitational-wave interferometers (ca. 2006--2008) are designed
to have sensitivities at about the standard quantum limit (SQL) near 100 Hz.
This paper describes and analyzes possible designs for subsequent, LIGO-III
interferometers that can beat the SQL. These designs are identical to a
conventional broad-band interferometer (without signal recycling), except for
new input and/or output optics. Three designs are analyzed: (i) a
"squeezed-input interferometer" (conceived by Unruh based on earlier work of
Caves) in which squeezed vacuum with frequency-dependent (FD) squeeze angle is
injected into the interferometer's dark port; (ii) a "variational-output"
interferometer (conceived in a different form by Vyatchanin, Matsko and
Zubova), in which homodyne detection with FD homodyne phase is performed on the
output light; and (iii) a "squeezed-variational interferometer" with squeezed
input and FD-homodyne output. It is shown that the FD squeezed-input light can
be produced by sending ordinary squeezed light through two successive
Fabry-Perot filter cavities before injection into the interferometer, and
FD-homodyne detection can be achieved by sending the output light through two
filter cavities before ordinary homodyne detection. With anticipated technology
and with laser powers comparable to that planned for LIGO-II, these
interferometers can beat the amplitude SQL by factors in the range from 3 to 5,
corresponding to event rate increases between ~30 and ~100 over the rate for a
SQL-limited interferometer.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review D; RevTeX manuscript with 16 figures;
prints to 33 pages in Physical Review double column format. Minor revisions
have been made in response to referee repor
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