Silicon Nitride MOMS Oscillator for Room Temperature Quantum Optomechanics
E Serra (Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Application)
B Morana (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
Antonio Borrielli (Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism, Nanoscience-Trento-FBK Division)
Francesco Marin (University of Florence, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche)
G. Pandraud (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)
A. Pontin (University of Florence, Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche)
Giovanni A. Prodi (Università di Trento)
Pasqualina Sarro (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
Michele Bonaldi (Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism, Nanoscience-Trento-FBK Division)
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Abstract
Optomechanical SiN nano-oscillators in high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavities can be used to investigate the interaction between mechanical and optical degree of freedom for ultra-sensitive metrology and fundamental quantum mechanical studies. In this paper, we present a nano-oscillator made of a high-stress round-shaped SiN membrane with an integrated on-chip 3-D acoustic shield properly designed to reduce mechanical losses. This oscillator works in the range of 200 kHz to 5 MHz and features a mechanical quality factor of Q ≃ 107 and a Q-frequency product in excess of 6.2 × 1012 Hz at room temperature, fulfilling the minimum requirement for quantum ground-state cooling of the oscillator in an optomechanical cavity. The device is obtained by MEMS deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) bulk micromachining with a two-side silicon processing on a silicon-on-insulator wafer. The microfabrication process is quite flexible such that additional layers could be deposited over the SiN membrane before the DRIE steps, if required for a sensing application. Therefore, such oscillator is a promising candidate for quantum sensing applications in the context of the emerging field of quantum technologies.