Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 273601 (2011)

Jake Taylor and colleagues from the USA and Denmark have proposed a laser-induced cooling technique based on strong coupling between a nanomechanical membrane and a high-Q electrical circuit — a technique that could be used for the optical readout of electrical signals. The device consists of a Fabry–Pérot cavity with a nanomechanical membrane at the resonator waist. This membrane is part of a capacitor whose capacitance depends on the displacement of the membrane. The idea is to use a voltage bias and an inductive component to give the circuit a resonant frequency close to that of the mechanical resonance. The resulting coupling between photons and the membrane phonons may become large enough to cause detectable mode-splitting in this system of electromechancial excitations. The researchers hope that the theoretical parameters are experimentally feasible and that the idea may yield field measurements beyond the conventional quantum limit.