PROJECT TITLE :

Enhancing Mechanical Quality Factors of Micro-Toroidal Optomechanical Resonators Using Phononic Crystals

ABSTRACT:

Fabrication of economical optomechanical resonators with high mechanical Q-factors without degrading their optical Q-factors or reducing effective mass is challenging. One in every of the limiting sources of mechanical loss for silica micro-toroids is the clamping loss. Previous efforts on reducing this loss were centered on reducing the connectivity between the toroid and also the pillar, that leads to reduced effective mass and degraded section noise. We explore a new approach for reducing the mechanical loss that relies on phononic crystals (PnCs). Since it's based mostly on the geometrical modification of substrate, it does not have an effect on the optical Q-issue or effective mass. 1st, we tend to experimentally verify the performance of the proposed PnC patterns while not a micro-toroid by measuring their acoustic transmission properties. This experiment is used to verify the effectiveness of the PnCs for blocking outgoing acoustic waves and our numerical model. Then, using the same numerical model, we have a tendency to study the effects of PnCs on the mechanical Q-factors of a micro-toroid previously investigated. Our results show that the PnCs improve the mechanical Q-issue regarding 150%. This technique can be utilized in conjunction with other previously demonstrated methods for the enhancement of the Q-factor for even larger enhancements.