Improved "Position Squared" Readout of a Mechanical Resonator in an Optical Cavity Using Degenerate Optical Modes

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dc.creatorSankey, Jack C.
dc.creatorJayich, Andrew M.
dc.creatorZwickl, Benjamin M.
dc.creatorYang, Cheng
dc.creatorHarris, Jack G. E.
dc.date2008-11-09
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:17:08Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:17:08Z
dc.descriptionOptomechanical devices in which a flexible SiN membrane is placed inside an optical cavity allow for very high finesse and mechanical quality factor in a single device. They also provide fundamentally new functionality: the cavity detuning can be a quadratic function of membrane position. This enables a measurement of "position squared" ($x^2$) and in principle a QND phonon number readout of the membrane. However, the readout achieved using a single transverse cavity mode is not sensitive enough to observe quantum jumps between phonon Fock states. Here we demonstrate an $x^2$-sensitivity that is orders of magnitude stronger using two transverse cavity modes that are nearly degenerate. We derive a first-order perturbation theory to describe the interactions between nearly-degenerate cavity modes and achieve good agreement with our measurements using realistic parameters. We also demonstrate theoretically that the $x^2$-coupling should be easily tunable over a wide range.
dc.description12 pages, 9 figures, ICAP proceeding
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0811.1343
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0811.1343
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/173749
dc.subjectQuantum Physics
dc.titleImproved "Position Squared" Readout of a Mechanical Resonator in an Optical Cavity Using Degenerate Optical Modes
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