A self-stabilized coherent phonon source driven by optical forces.
We report a novel injection scheme that allows for "phonon lasing" in a one-dimensional opto-mechanical photonic crystal, in a sideband unresolved regime and with cooperativity values as low as 10(-2). It extracts energy from a cw infrared laser source and is based on the triggering of a thermo-optical/free-carrier-dispersion self-pulsing limit-cycle, which anharmonically modulates the radiation pressure force. The large amplitude of the coherent mechanical motion acts as a feedback that stabilizes and entrains the self-pulsing oscillations to simple fractions of the mechanical frequency. A manifold of frequency-entrained regions with two different mechanical modes (at 54 and 122 MHz) are observed as a result of the wide tuneability of the natural frequency of the self-pulsing. The system operates at ambient conditions of pressure and temperature in a silicon platform, which enables its exploitation in sensing, intra-chip metrology or time-keeping applications.
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology ICN2, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.|NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze - CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, Pisa, I-56127.
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Navarro-Urrios
Depto. Física, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain.|Instituto Universitario de Materiales y Nanotecnología, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain.
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Capuj
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology ICN2, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
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Gomis-Bresco
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology ICN2, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
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Alzina
NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze - CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, Pisa, I-56127.
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Pitanti
Nanophotonics Technology Center, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.
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Griol
Nanophotonics Technology Center, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.
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Martínez
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology ICN2, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.|Catalan Institute for Research and Advances Studies ICREA, Barcelona, Spain.
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Sotomayor Torres