Gravitational Wave Detection with High Frequency Phonon Trapping Acoustic Cavities

There are a number of theoretical predictions for astrophysical and cosmological objects, which emit high frequency ($10^6-10^9$~Hz) Gravitation Waves (GW) or contribute somehow to the stochastic high frequency GW background. Here we propose a new sensitive detector in this frequency band, which is based on existing cryogenic ultra-high quality factor quartz Bulk Acoustic Wave cavity technology, coupled to near-quantum-limited SQUID amplifiers at $20$~mK. We show that spectral strain sensitivities reaching $10^{-22}$ per $\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ per mode is possible, which in principle can cover the frequency range with multiple ($>100$) modes with quality factors varying between $10^6-10^{10}$ allowing wide bandwidth detection. Due to its compactness and well established manufacturing process, the system is easily scalable into arrays and distributed networks that can also impact the overall sensitivity and introduce coincidence analysis to ensure no false detections.Comment: appears in Phys. Rev. D, (2014

Observation of Low Temperature Magneto-Mechanic Effects in Crystalline Resonant Phonon Cavities

We observe magnetic effects in ultra-high quality factor crystalline quartz Bulk Acoustic Wave resonators at milli-Kelvin temperature. The study reveals existence of hysteresis loops, jumps and memory effects of acoustical resonance frequencies. These loops arise as a response to the external magnetic field and span over few Hertz range for modes with linewidths of about $25$mHz, which constitute a frequency shift of order 60 linewidths. The effects are broadband but get stronger towards higher frequencies where both nonlinear effects and losses are limited by two level systems. This suggests that the observed effects are due to ferromagnet-like phase of a spin ensemble coupled to mechanical modes. The observed coupling between mechanical and spin degrees of freedom in the ultra low loss regime brings new possibilities for the emerging class of quantum hybrid systems