Topological phonon transport in an optomechanical system.

Light is a powerful tool for controlling mechanical motion, as shown by numerous applications in the field of cavity optomechanics. Recently, small scale optomechanical circuits, connecting a few optical and mechanical modes, have been demonstrated in an ongoing push towards multi-mode on-chip optomechanical systems. An ambitious goal driving this trend is to produce topologically protected phonon transport. Once realized, this will unlock the full toolbox of optomechanics for investigations of topological phononics. Here, we report the realization of topological phonon transport in an optomechanical device. Our experiment is based on an innovative multiscale optomechanical crystal design and allows for site-resolved measurements in an array of more than 800 cavities. The sensitivity inherent in our optomechanical read-out allowed us to detect thermal fluctuations traveling along topological edge channels. This represents a major step forward in an ongoing effort to downscale mechanical topological systems.

Nano-acoustic resonator with ultralong phonon lifetime.

The energy damping time in a mechanical resonator is critical to many precision metrology applications, such as timekeeping and force measurements. We present measurements of the phonon lifetime of a microwave-frequency, nanoscale silicon acoustic cavity incorporating a phononic bandgap acoustic shield. Using pulsed laser light to excite a colocalized optical mode of the cavity, we measured the internal acoustic modes with single-phonon sensitivity down to millikelvin temperatures, yielding a phonon lifetime of up to [Formula: see text] seconds (quality factor [Formula: see text]) and a coherence time of [Formula: see text] microseconds for bandgap-shielded cavities. These acoustically engineered nanoscale structures provide a window into the material origins of quantum noise and have potential applications ranging from tests of various collapse models of quantum mechanics to miniature quantum memory elements in hybrid superconducting quantum circuits.

Two-dimensional optomechanical crystal cavity with high quantum cooperativity.

Optomechanical systems offer new opportunities in quantum information processing and quantum sensing. Many solid-state quantum devices operate at millikelvin temperatures-however, it has proven challenging to operate nanoscale optomechanical devices at these ultralow temperatures due to their limited thermal conductance and parasitic optical absorption. Here, we present a two-dimensional optomechanical crystal resonator capable of achieving large cooperativity C and small effective bath occupancy nb, resulting in a quantum cooperativity Ceff ≡ C/nb > 1 under continuous-wave optical driving. This is realized using a two-dimensional phononic bandgap structure to host the optomechanical cavity, simultaneously isolating the acoustic mode of interest in the bandgap while allowing heat to be removed by phonon modes outside of the bandgap. This achievement paves the way for a variety of applications requiring quantum-coherent optomechanical interactions, such as transducers capable of bi-directional conversion of quantum states between microwave frequency superconducting quantum circuits and optical photons in a fiber optic network.

High optical transmittance of aluminum ultrathin film with hexagonal nanohole arrays as transparent electrode.

We fabricate samples of aluminum ultrathin films with hexagonal nanohole arrays and characterize the transmission performance. High optical transmittance larger than 60% over a broad wavelength range from 430 nm to 750 nm is attained experimentally. The Fano-type resonance of the excited surface plasmon plaritons and the directly transmitted light attribute to both of the broadband transmission enhancement and the transmission suppression dips.