Efficient microwave frequency conversion mediated by the vibrational motion of a silicon nitride nanobeam oscillator

Abstract

Microelectromechanical systems and integrated photonics provide the basis for many reliable and compact circuit elements in modern communication systems. Electro-opto-mechanical devices are currently one of the leading approaches to realize ultra-sensitive, low-loss transducers for an emerging quantum information technology. Here we present an on-chip microwave frequency converter based on a planar aluminum on silicon nitride platform that is compatible with slot-mode coupled photonic crystal cavities. We show efficient frequency conversion between two propagating microwave modes mediated by the radiation pressure interaction with a metalized dielectric nanobeam oscillator. We achieve bidirectional coherent conversion with a total device efficiency of up to ~ 60 %, a dynamic range of $2\times10^9$ photons/s and an instantaneous bandwidth of up to 1.7 kHz. A high fidelity quantum state transfer would be possible if the drive dependent output noise of currently $\sim14$ photons$\ \cdot\ $s$^{-1}\ \cdot\ $Hz$^{-1}$ is further reduced. Such a silicon nitride based transducer is in-situ reconfigurable and could be used for on-chip classical and quantum signal routing and filtering, both for microwave and hybrid microwave-optical applications.