Suspended Mirrors: From Test Masses to Micromechanics
Suspended mirrors are the most prominent model systems for optomechanical devices. During the last 10 years, microfabricated mirrors have dramatically increased the capability to exploit radiation-pressure effects on such structures. This chapter summariz
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Suspended Mirrors: From Test Masses to Micromechanics Pierre-François Cohadon, Roman Schnabel and Markus Aspelmeyer
Abstract Suspended mirrors are the most prominent model systems for optomechanical devices. During the last 10 years, microfabricated mirrors have dramatically increased the capability to exploit radiation-pressure effects on such structures. This chapter summarizes the current state-of-the-art in the performance of suspended (micro-)mirrors for cavity optomechanics experiments in terms of their optical and mechanical quality, and highlights some of the milestones experiments performed with suspended mirrors.
4.1 Introduction Suspended mirrors are the most natural mechanical system in optomechanics. Mainly because of their simplicity, they have been at the heart of many fundamental discussions and ground-breaking experiments. To provide a few examples: the first unambiguous demonstration of radiation pressure was realized in 1901 by monitoring the motion of a torsional pendulum illuminated by a strong light source, a success achieved in two independent experiments by Nichols and Hull [1] and by Lebedew [2]. In 1909, Einstein suggested a Gedanken experiment, in which radiation pressure on a suspended mirror revealed for the first time the unavoidable wave-particle duality in the nature of light [3], and in 1931 Schrödinger, in a letter to Sommerfeld, provided P.-F. Cohadon (B) Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, ENS, UPMC, CNRS, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] R. Schnabel Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany e-mail: [email protected] M. Aspelmeyer Faculty of Physics, Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ), University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected] M. Aspelmeyer et al. (eds.), Cavity Optomechanics, Quantum Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-55312-7_4, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
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Fig. 4.1 Optomechanics then and now. a Drawing of one of the two early ‘light-mill’ experiments that demonstrated the effect of radiation pressure. The torsional mechanical oscillator consisted of two silvered and polished microscope objectives (G and S), suspended by a rod of drawn glass and each weighing around 50 mg. The mechanical displacement was measured by optical deflection [1]. b General scheme of a typical optomechanics experiment to date. The mechanical motion of a mirror is directly coupled to the radiation field of an optical cavity, here by making the suspended mirror the end mirror of a Fabry–Perot cavity. The mirror motion is imprinted onto the phase of the reflected beam. Quantum fluctuations of light can limit the sensitivity of the mirror position measurement, but radiation pressure can also deeply alter the mirror motion
the first hints on quantum entanglement by analyzing the reflection of a single photon off a macroscopic mirror [4]. A few decades later, large-scale Michelson laser interferometers with suspended macroscopic mirrors emerged as n
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