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A hybrid on-chip optomechanical transducer for ultrasensitive force measurements

Abstract

Nanoscale mechanical oscillators1 are used as ultrasensitive detectors of force2, mass3 and charge4. Nanomechanical oscillators have also been coupled with optical and electronic resonators to explore the quantum properties of mechanical systems5. Here, we report an optomechanical transducer in which a Si3N4 nanomechanical beam6,7 is coupled to a disk-shaped optical resonator made of silica on a single chip. We demonstrate a force sensitivity of 74 aN Hz−1/2 at room temperature with a readout stability better than 1% at the minute scale. Our system is particularly suited for the detection of very weak incoherent forces, which is difficult with existing approaches because the force resolution scales with the fourth root of the averaging time8. By applying dissipative feedback9 based on radiation pressure, we significantly relax this constraint and are able to detect an incoherent force with a force spectral density of just 15 aN Hz−1/2 (which is 25 times less than the thermal noise) within 35 s of averaging time (which is 30 times less than the averaging time that would be needed in the absence of feedback). It is envisaged that our hybrid on-chip transducer could improve the performance of various forms of force microscopy8,10,11,12.

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Figure 1: Hybrid nanomechanical transducer system on a chip.
Figure 2: Feedback control of the nanomechanical transducer.
Figure 3: Force resolution enhancement via optomechanical feedback control.
Figure 4: Feedback-assisted force detection.

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Acknowledgements

Fabrication was carried out at the Center of MicroNanotechnology (CMi) at EPFL. The authors acknowledge financial support from NCCR Quantum Photonics, the DARPA Orchid programme, the SNF and an ERC starting grant (SIMP).

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

T.J.K. and E.G. conceived the hybrid transducer. E.G. performed the fabrication and modelling. P.V. designed and conceived the incoherent force resolution enhancement scheme and performed the theoretical calculations. E.G. and P.V. performed the measurements and analysed the data. E.G. and P.V. wrote the manuscripts with critical comments from T.J.K. All stages of the work were supervised by T.J.K.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to P. Verlot or T. J. Kippenberg.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Gavartin, E., Verlot, P. & Kippenberg, T. A hybrid on-chip optomechanical transducer for ultrasensitive force measurements. Nature Nanotech 7, 509–514 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.97

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