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Superfluid Brillouin optomechanics

Nature Physics volume 13, pages 74–79 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Optomechanical systems couple an electromagnetic cavity to a mechanical resonator which typically is a solid object. The range of phenomena accessible in these systems depends on the properties of the mechanical resonator and on the manner in which it couples to the cavity fields. In both respects, a mechanical resonator formed from superfluid liquid helium offers several appealing features: low electromagnetic absorption, high thermal conductivity, vanishing viscosity, well-understood mechanical loss, and in situ alignment with cryogenic cavities. In addition, it offers degrees of freedom that differ qualitatively from those of a solid. Here, we describe an optomechanical system consisting of a miniature optical cavity filled with superfluid helium. The cavity mirrors define optical and mechanical modes with near-perfect overlap, resulting in an optomechanical coupling rate ∼3 kHz. This coupling is used to drive the superfluid and is also used to observe the thermal motion of the superfluid, resolving a mean phonon number as low as eleven.

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Figure 1: Description and characterization of the superfluid-filled optical cavity.
Figure 2: Characterizing the acoustic mode and the optomechanical coupling.
Figure 3: Acoustic damping as a function of temperature.
Figure 4: Thermal fluctuations of the acoustic mode.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to V. Bernardo, J. Chadwick, J. Cummings, A. Fragner, K. Lawrence, D. Lee, D. McKinsey, P. Rakich, R. Schoelkopf, H. Tang, J. Thompson and Z. Zhao for their assistance. We acknowledge financial support from W. M. Keck Foundation Grant No. DT121914, AFOSR Grants FA9550-09-1-0484 and FA9550-15-1-0270, DARPA Grant W911NF-14-1-0354, ARO Grant W911NF-13-1-0104, and NSF Grant 1205861. This work has been supported by the DARPA/MTO ORCHID Program through a grant from AFOSR. This project was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1122492. L.H., K.O. and J.R. acknowledge funding from the EU Information and Communication Technologies Program (QIBEC project, GA 284584), ERC (EQUEMI project, GA 671133), and IFRAF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA

    A. D. Kashkanova, A. B. Shkarin, C. D. Brown, N. E. Flowers-Jacobs, L. Childress, S. W. Hoch & J. G. E. Harris

  2. Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada

    L. Childress

  3. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, ENS-PSL Research University, CNRS, UPMC-Sorbonne Universités, Collège de France, F-75005 Paris, France

    L. Hohmann, K. Ott & J. Reichel

  4. Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA

    J. G. E. Harris

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Contributions

A.D.K., A.B.S. and C.D.B. performed the measurements and analysis; A.D.K., A.B.S. and N.E.F.-J. assembled the device; A.D.K. and L.C. built and tested prototypes of the device; S.W.H., L.H. and K.O. carried out the laser machining of the fibres; J.R. supervised the laser machining; J.G.E.H. supervised the other phases of the project.

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Correspondence to J. G. E. Harris.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kashkanova, A., Shkarin, A., Brown, C. et al. Superfluid Brillouin optomechanics. Nature Phys 13, 74–79 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3900

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