Piezo-orbital backaction force in a rare-earth-doped crystal

We investigate a system composed of an ensemble of room-temperature rare-earth ions embedded in a bulk crystal, intrinsically coupled to internal strain via their sensitivity to the surrounding crystal field. We evidence the generation of a mechanical response under resonant atomic excitation. We find this motion to be the sum of two fundamental, resonant optomechanical backaction processes: a conservative, piezoorbital mechanism, resulting from the modification of the crystal field associated with the promotion of the ions to their excited state, and a dissipative, nonradiative photothermal process related to the phonons generated throughout the atomic population relaxation. Our work expands the horizons of research in hybrid optomechanics, and unveils unexplored interactions that may be key for understanding the dephasing dynamics of ultracoherent rare-earth ions.