On-chip actuation and readout of mechanical motion is key to characterize mechanical resonators and exploit them for new applications. We capacitively couple a silicon nitride membrane to an off resonant radio-frequency cavity formed by a lumped element circuit. Despite a low cavity quality factor (QE≈ 7.4) and off resonant, room temperature operation, we are able to parametrize several mechanical modes and estimate their optomechanical coupling strengths. This enables real-time measurements of the membrane's driven motion and fast characterization without requiring a superconducting cavity, thereby eliminating the need for cryogenic cooling. Finally, we observe optomechanically induced transparency and absorption, crucial for a number of applications including sensitive metrology, ground state cooling of mechanical motion and slowing of light.
@article{arxiv.1903.01423,
title = {Radio-frequency optomechanical characterization of a silicon nitride drum},
author = {A. N. Pearson and K. E. Khosla and M. Mergenthaler and G. A. D. Briggs and E. A. Laird and N. Ares},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.01423},
year = {2020}
}