Photonic crystal membranes (PCM) provide a versatile planar platform for
on-chip implementations of photonic quantum circuits. One prominent quantum
element is a coupled system consisting of a nanocavity and a single quantum dot
(QD) which forms a fundamental building block for elaborate quantum information
networks and a cavity quantum electrodynamic (cQED) system controlled by single
photons. So far no fast tuning mechanism is available to achieve control within
the system coherence time. Here we demonstrate dynamic tuning by monochromatic
coherent acoustic phonons formed by a surface acoustic wave (SAW) with
frequencies exceeding 1.7 gigahertz, one order of magnitude faster than
alternative approaches. We resolve a periodic modulation of the optical mode
exceeding eight times its linewidth, preserving both the spatial mode profile
and a high quality factor. Since PCMs confine photonic and phononic
excitations, coupling optical to acoustic frequencies, our technique opens ways
towards coherent acoustic control of optomechanical crystals.Comment: 11 pages 4 figure