title: Strong opto-electro-mechanical coupling in a silicon photonic crystal cavity.
abstract: We fabricate and characterize a microscale silicon opto-electromechanical system whose mechanical motion is coupled capacitively to an electrical circuit and optically via radiation pressure to a photonic crystal cavity. To achieve large electromechanical interaction strength, we implement an inverse shadow mask fabrication scheme which obtains capacitor gaps as small as 30 nm while maintaining a silicon surface quality necessary for minimizing optical loss. Using the sensitive optical read-out of the photonic crystal cavity, we characterize the linear and nonlinear capacitive coupling to the fundamental ω(m)/2π = 63 MHz in-plane flexural motion of the structure, showing that the large electromechanical coupling in such devices may be suitable for realizing efficient microwave-to-optical signal conversion.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pitanti
authors.forename: Johannes M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.forename: Amir H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Safavi-Naeini
authors.forename: Jeff T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Chan U
authors.initials: CU
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tredicucci
authors.forename: Oskar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Painter