title: Thermal noise and optomechanical features in the emission of a membrane-coupled compound cavity laser diode.
abstract: We demonstrate the use of a compound optical cavity as linear displacement detector, by measuring the thermal motion of a silicon nitride suspended membrane acting as the external mirror of a near-infrared Littrow laser diode. Fluctuations in the laser optical power induced by the membrane vibrations are collected by a photodiode integrated within the laser, and then measured with a spectrum analyzer. The dynamics of the membrane driven by a piezoelectric actuator is investigated as a function of air pressure and actuator displacement in a homodyne configuration. The high Q-factor (~3.4 · 10(4) at 8.3 · 10(-3) mbar) of the fundamental mechanical mode at ~73 kHz guarantees a detection sensitivity high enough for direct measurement of thermal motion at room temperature (~87 pm RMS). The compound cavity system here introduced can be employed as a table-top, cost-effective linear displacement detector for cavity optomechanics. Furthermore, thanks to the strong optical nonlinearities of the laser compound cavity, these systems open new perspectives in the study of non-Markovian quantum properties at the mesoscale.
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).|Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baldacci
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pitanti
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Masini
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arcangeli
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Colangelo
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).|Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIS and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, (Spain).
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Navarro-Urrios
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR Istituto Nanoscienze and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo 3, 56127, Pisa, (Italy).
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tredicucci
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D004867:Equipment Design; D054023:Lasers, Semiconductor; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011312:Pressure