Tensile-strained InxGa1-xP membranes for cavity optomechanics
- Author(s)
- Garrett D. Cole, Pen-Li Yu, Claus Gärtner, Karoline Siquans, Ramon Moghadas Nia, Jonas Schmoele, Jason Hoelscher-Obermaier, Thomas P. Purdy, Witlef Wieczorek, Cindy A. Regal, Markus Aspelmeyer
- Abstract
We investigate the optomechanical properties of tensile-strained ternary InxGa1−xP nanomembranes grown on GaAs. This material
system combines the benefits of highly strained membranes, similar to
those based on stoichiometric silicon nitride, with the unique properties of thin-film semiconductor single crystals, as previously demonstrated with suspended GaAs. Here, we employ lattice mismatch in epitaxial growth to impart an intrinsic tensile strain to a monocrystalline thin film (approximately 30 nm thick). These structures exhibit mechanical quality factors of 2 × 106 or beyond at room temperature and 17 K for eigenfrequencies up to 1 MHz, yielding Q × f products of 2 × 1012 Hz for a tensile stress of ∼170 MPa. Incorporating such membranes in a high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity, we extract an upper limit to the total optical loss (including both absorption and scatter)
of 40 ppm at 1064 nm and room temperature. Further reductions of the In
content of this alloy will enable tensile stress levels of 1 GPa, with
the potential for a significant increase in the Q × f product, assuming
no deterioration in the mechanical loss at this composition and strain
level. This materials system is a promising candidate for the integration of strained semiconductor membrane structures with low-loss semiconductor mirrors and for realizing stacks of membranes for enhanced optomechanical coupling
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, University of Colorado, Boulder, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert Einstein Institut)
- Journal
- Applied Physics Letters
- Volume
- 104
- No. of pages
- 5
- ISSN
- 0003-6951
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4879755
- Publication date
- 05-2014
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103026 Quantum optics
- Keywords
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/tensilestrained-inxga1xp-membranes-for-cavity-optomechanics(27e8ca11-3044-4864-affb-85bf3b7b8a55).html