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Optomechanical coupling between a multilayer graphene mechanical resonator and a superconducting microwave cavity

Nature Nanotechnology volume 9, pages 820–824 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The combination of low mass density, high frequency and high quality factor, Q, of mechanical resonators made of two-dimensional crystals such as graphene1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 make them attractive for applications in force/mass sensing and exploring the quantum regime of mechanical motion. Microwave optomechanics with superconducting cavities9,10,11,12,13,14 offers exquisite position sensitivity10 and enables the preparation and detection of mechanical systems in the quantum ground state15,16. Here, we demonstrate coupling between a multilayer graphene resonator with quality factors up to 220,000 and a high-Q superconducting cavity. Using thermomechanical noise as calibration, we achieve a displacement sensitivity of 17 fm Hz−1/2. Optomechanical coupling is demonstrated by optomechanically induced reflection and absorption of microwave photons17,18,19. We observe 17 dB of mechanical microwave amplification13 and signatures of strong optomechanical backaction. We quantitatively extract the cooperativity C, a characterization of coupling strength, from the measurement with no free parameters and find C = 8, which is promising for the quantum regime of graphene motion.

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Figure 1: Characterization of the superconducting cavity coupled to a multilayer graphene mechanical resonator.
Figure 2: Sideband resolved detection of the motion.
Figure 3: Optomechanically induced absorption (OMIA) and optomechanically induced reflection (OMIR).
Figure 4: Large cooperativity with a multilayer graphene mechanical resonator.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Clerk for providing initial theoretical input. This work was supported by the Dutch Organization for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). A.C.G. acknowledges financial support through the FP7-Marie Curie project PIEF-GA-2011-300802 (‘STRENGTHNANO’).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kavli Institute of NanoScience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, PO Box 5046, 2600 GA, The Netherlands

    V. Singh, S. J. Bosman, B. H. Schneider, Y. M. Blanter, A. Castellanos-Gomez & G. A. Steele

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  1. V. Singh
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  2. S. J. Bosman
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  3. B. H. Schneider
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  4. Y. M. Blanter
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  5. A. Castellanos-Gomez
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  6. G. A. Steele
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Contributions

V.S., S.B. and B.S. optimized and fabricated the quarter-wavelength superconducting cavity samples. A.C.G. developed the deterministic transfer method. V.S. and A.C.G. transferred graphene onto the superconducting cavity samples. V.S. and S.B. set up the low-temperature microwave measurement set-up. V.S. performed the measurement. Y.B. provided theoretical support. G.A.S. conceived the experiment and supervised the work. All authors contributed to writing the manuscript and provided critical comments.

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Correspondence to V. Singh or G. A. Steele.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Singh, V., Bosman, S., Schneider, B. et al. Optomechanical coupling between a multilayer graphene mechanical resonator and a superconducting microwave cavity. Nature Nanotech 9, 820–824 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2014.168

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