IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v459y2009i7246d10.1038_nature08061.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A picogram- and nanometre-scale photonic-crystal optomechanical cavity

Author

Listed:
  • Matt Eichenfield

    (Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA)

  • Ryan Camacho

    (Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA)

  • Jasper Chan

    (Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA)

  • Kerry J. Vahala

    (Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA)

  • Oskar Painter

    (Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA)

Abstract

The mighty photon The fact that photons of light carry momentum so can exert mechanical force is not just an academic curiosity; researchers have harnessed such forces for various applications, 'optical tweezers' being a notable example. Now Eichenfield et al. have engineered a system of simple photonic structures on a silicon chip in which light and mechanical energy are simultaneously localized in a tiny volume, called a 'zipper' cavity because of its zip-like shape, such that even a single optical photon produces a significant force. The mechanical rigidity of the resulting structure is dominated by an optical spring effect many times that of the intrinsic mechanical spring, resulting in interesting mechanical mode-mixing and extremely high motion sensitivity. Such an extreme optomechanical regime is anticipated to find use in a variety of precision measurement and optical communication technologies, as well as providing a test bed for fundamental physics.

Suggested Citation

  • Matt Eichenfield & Ryan Camacho & Jasper Chan & Kerry J. Vahala & Oskar Painter, 2009. "A picogram- and nanometre-scale photonic-crystal optomechanical cavity," Nature, Nature, vol. 459(7246), pages 550-555, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:459:y:2009:i:7246:d:10.1038_nature08061
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08061
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08061
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature08061?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jingkun Guo & Jin Chang & Xiong Yao & Simon Gröblacher, 2023. "Active-feedback quantum control of an integrated low-frequency mechanical resonator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Mitsuyoshi Kamba & Ryoga Shimizu & Kiyotaka Aikawa, 2023. "Nanoscale feedback control of six degrees of freedom of a near-sphere," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:459:y:2009:i:7246:d:10.1038_nature08061. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.