Figure 1: Structure and set-up.
From: Nonlinear cavity optomechanics with nanomechanical thermal fluctuations
(a) Electron microscope image of a silicon sliced nanobeam. The shown part is free-standing and has a thickness of 250 nm. The scale bar is 2 μm and is valid for a–c. (b) Simulated displacement profile of the fundamental mechanical resonance, which strongly modifies the gap size. (c) Simulated transverse electric field of the fundamental optical cavity resonance. The inset shows an enlarged view of the cavity region (scale bar 1 μm), formed by a tapered variation of the distances between, and sizes of, the holes. (d) Schematic diagram of the employed balanced homodyne interferometer measurement set-up. The reflection from the sliced nanobeam is interfered with the light from the reference arm, enabling near-quantum-limited measurement of fluctuation spectra even with low power incident on the sample (see Methods section for details).
