Photonic crystal slabs for optomechanics (Conference Presentation)

Two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs (PCS) offer an appealing alternative to distributed Bragg reflectors or filters for various applications. Indeed, their scattering properties, governed by Fano-resonances, have been used in areas as diverse as optical wavelength and polarization filters, reflectors, semiconductor lasers, photodetectors, bio-sensors, or non-linear optical components. Suspended PCSs also find natural applications in the field of optomechanics, where the mechanical modes of a suspended slab interact via radiation pressure with the optical field of a high finesse cavity. The reflectivity and transmission properties of a defect-free suspended PCS around normal incidence can be used to couple out-of-plane mechanical modes to an optical field by integrating it in a free space cavity. We have demonstrated the successful implementation of a PCS reflector on a high-tensile stress Si3N4 nanomembrane. We could measure the photonic crystal band diagram with a spectrally, angular, and polarization resolved setup. Moreover, a cavity with a finesse as high as 12 000 was formed using the suspended membrane as end-mirror of a Fabry-Perot cavity. These achievements allow us to operate in the resolved sideband regime where the optical storage time exceeds the mechanical period of low-order mechanical drum modes. This condition is a prerequisite to achieve quantum control of the mechanical resonator with light.