Opto-mechanics with surface acoustic wave whispering gallery modes

Abstract

A surface acoustic wave (SAW) creates its own high-Q ultra-small volume whispering gallery modes (WGMs), different from usual bulk acoustic WGMs, in an optical dielectric WGM resonator. We show that it is possible to realize an externally controllable, efficient triply-resonant opto-mechanical interaction between two optical WGMs and the SAW WGM and to use such an interaction in various sensor applications.