Diamond optomechanical crystals for high-frequency strain and comb generation

Abstract

Quantum optomechanical technologies benefit from mechanical oscillators that are high-frequency, can be coherently driven, and are capable of coupling to other quantum systems. Diamond supports all of these criteria: its large elastic modulus increases mechanical resonance frequency, its low nonlinear optical absorption increases the allowed intensity of fields used for coherent optomechanics, and it hosts spin qubits that interact with mechanical modes. Here we demonstrate a diamond optomechanical crystal cavity that supports multiple mechanical resonances with $\sim$12 GHz frequency and high $Q_\text{m} \times f_\text{m}$ product that can be coherently coupled to multiple optical modes. By exciting this sideband resolved system into mechanical self-sustained oscillations, we generate a frequency comb spanning 143 GHz. Analysis of the comb spectrum, combined with systematic characterization of the system's optomechanical coupling, allows us to quantitatively show that its mechanical oscillation amplitude reaches 130 pm. This corresponds to a maximum total dynamic strain of $1.1 \times 10^{-3}$ that is sufficiently high for future demonstrations of optomechanical control of diamond spin qubits.