Anderson Photon-Phonon Colocalization in Certain Random Superlattices

Fundamental observations in physics ranging from gravitational wave detection to laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state rely on the interaction between the optical and the mechanical degrees of freedom. A key parameter to engineer this interaction is the spatial o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters Vol. 122; no. 4; p. 043903
Main Authors: Arregui, G., Lanzillotti-Kimura, N. D., Sotomayor-Torres, C. M., García, P. D.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States American Physical Society 01.02.2019
Subjects:
Acoustic propagation
Anderson localization
Bragg reflectors
Condensed Matter
Gravitational waves
Interaction parameters
Laser cooling
Opto-mechanics
Phonons
Physical properties
Physics
Superlattices
Wave propagation
ISSN:0031-9007, 1079-7114, 1079-7114
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Fundamental observations in physics ranging from gravitational wave detection to laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state rely on the interaction between the optical and the mechanical degrees of freedom. A key parameter to engineer this interaction is the spatial overlap between the two fields, optimized in carefully designed resonators on a case-by-case basis. Disorder is an alternative strategy to confine light and sound at the nanoscale. However, it lacks an a priori mechanism guaranteeing a high degree of colocalization due to the inherently complex nature of the underlying interference processes. Here, we propose a way to address this challenge by using GaAs/AlAs vertical distributed Bragg reflectors with embedded geometrical disorder. Because of a remarkable coincidence in the physical parameters governing light and motion propagation in these two materials, the equations for both longitudinal acoustic waves and normal-incidence light become practically equivalent for excitations of the same wavelength. This guarantees spatial overlap between the electromagnetic and displacement fields of specific photon-phonon pairs, leading to strong light-matter interaction. In particular, a statistical enhancement in the vacuum optomechanical coupling rate, g_{o}, is found, making this system a promising candidate to explore Anderson localization of high frequency (∼20  GHz) phonons enabled by cavity optomechanics. The colocalization effect shown here unlocks the access to unexplored localization phenomena and the engineering of light-matter interactions mediated by Anderson-localized states.
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ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.043903