1,335 research outputs found
Optical phase-space reconstruction of mirror position at the attometer level
We describe an experiment in which the quadratures of the position of an
harmonically-bound mirror are observed at the attometer level. We have studied
the Brownian motion of the mirror, both in the free regime and in the
cold-damped regime when an external viscous force is applied by radiation
pressure. We have also studied the thermal-noise squeezing when the external
force is parametrically modulated. We have observed both the 50% theoretical
limit of squeezing at low gain and the parametric oscillation of the mirror for
a large gain.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure
Nonlinear mechanics with photonic crystal nanomembranes
Optomechanical systems close to their quantum ground state and nonlinear
nanoelectromechanical systems are two hot topics of current physics research.
As high-reflectivity and low mass are crucial features to improve
optomechanical coupling towards the ground state, we have designed, fabricated
and characterized photonic crystal nanomembranes, at the crossroad of both
topics. Here we demonstrate a number of nonlinear effects with these membranes.
We first characterize the nonlinear behavior of a single mechanical mode and we
demonstrate its nonlocal character by monitoring the subsequent
actuation-related frequency shift of a different mode. We then proceed to study
the underlying nonlinear dynamics, both by monitoring the phase-space
trajectory of the free resonator and by characterizing the mechanical response
in presence of a strong pump excitation. We observe in particular the frequency
evolution during a ring-down oscillation decay, and the emergence of a phase
conjugate mechanical response to a weaker probe actuation. Our results are
crucial to understand the full nonlinear features of the PhC membranes, and
possibly to look for nonlinear signatures of the quantum dynamics
Probing optomechanical correlations between two optical beams down to the quantum level
Quantum effects of radiation pressure are expected to limit the sensitivity
of second-generation gravitational-wave interferometers. Though ubiquitous,
such effects are so weak that they haven't been experimentally demonstrated
yet. Using a high-finesse optical cavity and a classical intensity noise, we
have demonstrated radiation-pressure induced correlations between two optical
beams sent into the same moving mirror cavity. Our scheme can be extended down
to the quantum level and has applications both in high-sensitivity measurements
and in quantum optics
Scheme for teleportation of quantum states onto a mechanical resonator
We propose an experimentally feasible scheme to teleport an unkown quantum
state onto the vibrational degree of freedom of a macroscopic mirror. The
quantum channel between the two parties is established by exploiting radiation
pressure effects.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, in press on PR
A micropillar for cavity optomechanics
We present a new micromechanical resonator designed for cavity optomechanics.
We have used a micropillar geometry to obtain a high-frequency mechanical
resonance with a low effective mass and a very high quality factor. We have
coated a 60-m diameter low-loss dielectric mirror on top of the pillar and
are planning to use this micromirror as part of a high-finesse Fabry-Perot
cavity, to laser cool the resonator down to its quantum ground state and to
monitor its quantum position fluctuations by quantum-limited optical
interferometry
2D photonic-crystal optomechanical nanoresonator
We present the optical optimization of an optomechanical device based on a
suspended InP membrane patterned with a 2D near-wavelength grating (NWG) based
on a 2D photonic-crystal geometry. We first identify by numerical simulation a
set of geometrical parameters providing a reflectivity higher than 99.8 % over
a 50-nm span. We then study the limitations induced by the finite value of the
optical waist and lateral size of the NWG pattern using different numerical
approaches. The NWG grating, pierced in a suspended InP 265 nm-thick membrane,
is used to form a compact microcavity involving the suspended nano-membrane as
end mirror. The resulting cavity has a waist size smaller than 10 m and a
finesse in the 200 range. It is used to probe the Brownian motion of the
mechanical modes of the nanomembrane
High-sensitivity optical monitoring of a micro-mechanical resonator with a quantum-limited optomechanical sensor
We experimentally demonstrate the high-sensitivity optical monitoring of a
micro-mechanical resonator and its cooling by active control. Coating a
low-loss mirror upon the resonator, we have built an optomechanical sensor
based on a very high-finesse cavity (30000). We have measured the thermal noise
of the resonator with a quantum-limited sensitivity at the 10^-19 m/rootHz
level, and cooled the resonator down to 5K by a cold-damping technique.
Applications of our setup range from quantum optics experiments to the
experimental demonstration of the quantum ground state of a macroscopic
mechanical resonator.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
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
A filtered multilevel Monte Carlo method for estimating the expectation of discretized random fields
We investigate the use of multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) methods for
estimating the expectation of discretized random fields. Specifically, we
consider a setting in which the input and output vectors of the numerical
simulators have inconsistent dimensions across the multilevel hierarchy. This
requires the introduction of grid transfer operators borrowed from multigrid
methods. Starting from a simple 1D illustration, we demonstrate numerically
that the resulting MLMC estimator deteriorates the estimation of high-frequency
components of the discretized expectation field compared to a Monte Carlo (MC)
estimator. By adapting mathematical tools initially developed for multigrid
methods, we perform a theoretical spectral analysis of the MLMC estimator of
the expectation of discretized random fields, in the specific case of linear,
symmetric and circulant simulators. This analysis provides a spectral
decomposition of the variance into contributions associated with each scale
component of the discretized field. We then propose improved MLMC estimators
using a filtering mechanism similar to the smoothing process of multigrid
methods. The filtering operators improve the estimation of both the small- and
large-scale components of the variance, resulting in a reduction of the total
variance of the estimator. These improvements are quantified for the specific
class of simulators considered in our spectral analysis. The resulting filtered
MLMC (F-MLMC) estimator is applied to the problem of estimating the discretized
variance field of a diffusion-based covariance operator, which amounts to
estimating the expectation of a discretized random field. The numerical
experiments support the conclusions of the theoretical analysis even with
non-linear simulators, and demonstrate the improvements brought by the proposed
F-MLMC estimator compared to both a crude MC and an unfiltered MLMC estimator
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