2016/06/30 by E. B. Aranas, P. Z. G. Fonseca, P. G. Z. Fonseca +2
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Asymmetry #Coupling (piping) #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Mesoscopic physics #Optics #Optomechanics #Photonic and Optical Devices #Physics #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Sideband #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/18/11/113021
published as New J. Phys. 18 (2016) 113021
arxiv created 2016/07/20 · openalex publication_date 2016/11/09 · arxiv updated 2017/10/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Optomechanical coupling between the motion of a mechanical oscillator and a cavity represents a new arena for experimental investigation of quantum effects on the mesoscopic and macroscopic scale. The motional sidebands of the output of a cavity offer ultra-sensitive probes of the dynamics. We introduce a scheme whereby these sidebands split asymmetrically and show how they may be used as experimental diagnostics and signatures of quantum noise limited dynamics. We show split-sidebands with controllable asymmetry occur by simultaneously modulating the light-mechanical coupling g and the mechanical frequency, —slowly and out-of-phase. Such modulations are generic but already occur in optically trapped set-ups where the equilibrium point of the oscillator is varied cyclically. We analyse recently observed, but overlooked, experimental split-sideband asymmetries; although not yet in the quantum regime, the data suggests that split sideband structures are easily accessible to future experiments.