Parametric self pulsing in a quantum opto-mechanical system

✍ Scribed by C.A. Holmes; G.J. Milburn

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 505 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0015-8208
• DOI: 10.1002/prop.200900074

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We describe an opto‐mechanical system in which the coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom takes the form of a fully quantised third‐order parametric interaction. Two physical realisations are proposed: a harmonically trapped atom in a standing wave and the ‘membrane in the middle’ model. The dominant resonant interaction corresponds to a stimulated Raman process in which two phonons are converted into a single cavity photon. We show that this system can exhibit a stable limit‐cycle in which energy is periodically exchanged between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom. This is equivalently described as a parametric self‐pulsing.