FOWLING · Free-space optomechanics with light-emitting materials
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-12-01 → 2022-12-19
- EU contribution
- €160,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Free-space optomechanics with light-emitting materials
Optomechanics is the study of the interaction between light and matter. Its study has significant societal implications, with recent advances such as the experimental observation of gravitational waves in LIGO, or in the cooling of atoms down to their motional grown state. More generally, optomechanics is able to utilize light to control mechanical motion, enabling applications such as extremely sensitive mass and force sensors. FOWLING primarily aimed to study nanoscale optomechanical crystal systems in higher dimensional systems beyond standard 1D nanobeams. The work focused on the study of the generation, manipulation, and detection of phonons within these optomechanical systems, which could also help pave the way towards realizing phononic circuits. The relevance to society lies in the field of radio frequency-optical coupling, which could potentially enable low energy information processing. The beneficiary demonstrated important pathways, from design to measurement, of types of nano fabricated structures suitable for operation in the GHz (mechanical) and THz (optical) ranges. These structures could impact devices such as sensors or high frequency filters, or play a role in optical communications and contribute towards enriching fundamental knowledge towards using phonons for information and communication technologies, as phonons would need less power compared to electrons and photons. The research work substantially enhanced the MS Curie Fellow research skills in preparation for a leading position in academia or industry. The outcomes were disseminated in high impact journals, with some still to be submitted (with a total number expected to reach 13 publications by the end of 2024). The beneficiary disseminated his work internationally in an invited talk and a contributed talk. Furthermore, a research stay in another group (European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy in Florence, Italy) provided him with experience in working with quantum optics and organic molecule light-emitters.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The coupling of electromagnetic radiation (photons) to mechanical waves (phonons) is at the heart of solid-state quantum photonics while phonon transport at different frequencies governs crucial physical phenomena ranging from thermal conductivity to the sensitivity of nano-electromechanical resonators. To engineer and control the overlap of light management with the mechanical vibrations of matter efficiently, we make use of very precisely fabricated nanometer-scale devices. The standard way of achieving this control is to use engineered defects in periodic structures - optomechanical crystals - where the electromagnetic field and the mechanical displacement can be confined simultaneously thus enhancing their interaction. However, despite its extraordinary potential, cavity optomechanics is suffering from the limitations induced by the experimental setup commonly used to address the mechanical modes, namely the difficulty to use integrable structures.During this project, we will explore novel designs for optomechanical nanostructures and we will develop experimental methods to address the phononic and photonic modes of nanoscale objects from free-space, and thus get rid of the limitations imposed by fibres, which will in turn enable the incorporation of optically active materials in mechanical resonators. In particular, we will make use of embedded quantum light emnitters excited above-band optically. This will allow us to explore light-matter interaction in this novel platform ad get direct access to the photonic modes of the system. By exploring the frequency modulation of these photonic modes induced by optomechanical coupling, we expect to also have access to the confined mechanical vibrations of the structure. The investigation of these systems will have an important impact on quantum information and thermal transport as well as highly sensitive force, mass and displacement detection.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- FUNDACIO INSTITUT CATALA DE NANOCIENCIA I NANOTECNOLOGIA · BELLATERRA (BARCELONA)CoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union