Demonstration of Piezo-Orbital Backaction Force in a Bulk Rare-Earth Ion-Doped Crystal
Anne Louchet-Chauvet, P. Verlot, J.-Ph. Poizat +1 more
We consider a hybrid optomechanical system composed of an ensemble of identical rare earth ions embedded in a bulk crystal, and coupled to internal strain. We evidence the generation of a mechanical response within this hybrid system under resonant atomic excitation, which we find to be driven by two fundamental contributions: First, a conservative backaction force coined as piezo-orbital, coming along with the promotion of the atoms in their excited state. This effect is expected in all impurity-doped crystals and reflects the interaction between the ions' orbital shape and the crystal field of their host matrix. The second contribution corresponds to a dissipa-tive, photothermal backaction force associated with the non-radiative relaxation dynamics of the rare-earth ions. The two components are identified by means of a spatio-temporal mapping of the mechanically non-resonant op-tomechanical response in the bulk crystal. The optically resonant nature of the two effects and their fundamental connection to the internal atomic state dynamics are quantitatively confirmed.
Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)•Jun 26, 2023•0 citations