We describe an opto-mechanical system in which the coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom takes the form of a fully quantised third-order parametric interaction. Two physical realisations are proposed: a harmonically trapped atom in a standing wave and the `membrane in the middle' model. The dominant resonant interaction corresponds to a stimulated Raman process in which two phonons are converted into a single cavity photon. We show that this system can exhibit a stable limit cycle in which energy is periodically exchanged between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom. This is equivalently described as a parametric self-pulsing.
@article{arxiv.0906.3317,
title = {Parametric self pulsing in a quantum opto-mechanical system},
author = {C A Holmes and G J Milburn},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.3317},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Submitted to the special issue of Fortschritte der Physik celebrating Paolo Tombesi's 70th birthday