Abstract

The motion of a micromechanical resonator coupled simultaneously to a high-finesse optical cavity and a microwave resonator can be used to transduce the fragile quantum states generated in the realm of microwave superconducting circuits into optical photons that can transport quantum information over large distances in telecom optical fibers at room temperature. We have engineered the optical and mechanical properties of thin membranes patterned in a suspended high-stress Si3N4 film to realize such a hybrid opto-electro-mechanical system. An optical Fabry-Perot cavity with a finesse exceeding 12 000 was realized between a highly reflective photonic crystal patch realized on the suspended membrane and a conventional high-reflectivity mirror. The electromechanical coupling with a nearby planar superconducting circuit is achieved by approaching the membrane at a sub-micron distance from an on-chip interdigitated capacitor. By operating the hybrid opto-electro-mechanical system in a cryogenic environment, the photon-phonon swap rates between microwave, mechanical, and optical degrees of freedom is expected to overcome the mechanical decoherence rate. An artist view of the device envisioned is depicted on Figure 1.

© 2017 IEEE