arXiv subjects

Hajime Okamoto

Publications and source records attributed to Hajime Okamoto.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Optically tunable nonlinear mechanical damping in an optomechanical resonator

We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate optically tunable nonlinear mechanical damping in a cavity optomechanical system utilizing a partly resolved sideband regime. Optomechanical coupling provides a delayed nonlinear backaction to the mechanical modes, resulting in nonlinear mechanical damping. This optically induced nonlinear damping is observed in the frequency and time domains, and we show using both theory and experiment that it can be tuned via laser detuning. Specifically, we observe positive nonlinear damping in the blue-detuned regime and negative nonlinear damping in the red-detuned regime. We also observe optically mediated cross-nonlinear damping between two mechanical modes: the amplitude of one mode modulates the damping of the other. The presented results show a tunable scheme of nonlinear mechanical damping that will be applicable to various non-trivial systems, governed by nonlinear, nonequilibrium, and non-Hermitian phenomena.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Nonreciprocal phonon propagation via spatially asymmetric magnon-phonon coupling

Nonreciprocal propagation of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) based on the spatial asymmetry of magnon-phonon coupling is demonstrated. This nonreciprocity is enabled by an acoustic wavelength scale thick magnetic layer formed under a thin piezoelectric film. In this configuration, magnon modes activated by dipole-dipole interactions are localized near either the top or bottom interface depending on the propagation direction of the SAW. As a result, the spatial overlap between interfacial magnon and surface phonon modes is expected to become direction dependent, in a manner that leads to distinct unidirectional propagation of SAWs. Notably, the resulting nonreciprocity reaches the highest level among those reported for SAW devices based on a single magnetic layer. This finding will establish a new strategy of nonreciprocal acoustic propagation in a structurally simple magnomechanical device.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Optomechanical parametric control of mid-infrared photons via molecular vibrational polariton

Controlling mid-infrared (MIR) photons using well-developed telecom photonic platforms would enable new functionalities in molecular and quantum photonics. However, establishing efficient interactions between MIR and telecom photons remains challenging due to their large spectral separation and weak nonlinear coupling. Here, we demonstrate optomechanical control of MIR photons mediated by vibrational polaritons, enabling photon-photon interaction between MIR and telecom fields across distant spectral regions. Using a Fabry-Pérot cavity incorporating a vibrationally active polymer, we observe telecom-driven dissipation enhancement of MIR photons at 9.5 $μ$m with a modulation depth of 1% under a 4 mW pump. The linear power dependence, mixing-ratio dependence, and detuning response consistently indicate a MIR and telecom photon-photon conversion enabled by strong light-matter coupling. This approach establishes a polaritonic optomechanical platform for bridging disparate spectral regimes and provides a dissipation-engineered route toward hybrid MIR photonics and quantum transduction.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

On-chip magnon polaron generation in mode-matched cavity magnomechanics

Generation of magnon polarons, which are hybridized states resulting from strong magnon-phonon coupling, is a key to enabling coherent manipulation in acoustic and spintronic devices. However, the conventional device configuration, a magnetic thin film on a thick piezoelectric layer, often has difficulty achieving a large magnon-phonon coupling due to a very small spatial mode overlap. Here, we demonstrate generation of magnon polarons by using a mode-matched on-chip magnomechanical system. A configuration with a thin piezoelectric film on a magnetic layer several micrometers thick was found to sustain deeply distributed magnon modes that enable magnetoelastic coupling to phonons over almost the entire mode volume. The enhanced spatial mode overlap generated magnon polarons whose spectra showed distinct avoided crossing. This magnomechanical system will facilitate utilization of coherent magnon-phonon conversion and their hybrid states in functional phononic devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Synthesized Kuramoto potential via optomechanical Floquet engineering

Synchronization is a ubiquitous scientific phenomenon in various physical systems. Here, we examine the feasibility of generating multistable and dynamically tunable synchronization by using the technique of Floquet engineering. Applying a periodically modulated laser light to optomechanical oscillators allows for stable and precise control of oscillator couplings. This enables us not only to explore the physics of quantized integer and fractional phase slips but also synthesize multioctave synchronizations of mechanical oscillators that exhibit tailorable multistability. Furthermore, the dynamically manipulated synchronizations lead to an exotic topology wherein the phase trajectories have a nontrivial winding number and giant non-reciprocity. This scheme could help to elucidate the dynamics of complicated oscillator networks like biological systems and to mimic their highly efficient information processing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Near-field optomechanical transduction enhanced by Raman gain

Raman-gain-enhanced near-field optomechanical transduction between a movable optical cavity and SiN-membrane resonator is demonstrated. The Raman gain compensates for the intrinsic loss of the cavity and amplifies the optomechanical transduction, through which the membrane vibration is sensed using a high-Q whispering-gallery-mode optical cavity evanescently. The optical Q of the cavity resonance is improved with respect to the optical pump power, which results in an increase in the optomechanically transduced vibration signals of the mechanical resonator. Our near-field optomechanical coupling approach with optical gain realizes highly sensitive displacement measurement in nano- and micro-mechanical resonators consisting of arbitrary materials and structures.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Observation of Acoustically Induced Dressed States of Rare-Earth Ions

Acoustically induced dressed states of long-lived erbium ions in a crystal are demonstrated. These states are formed by rapid modulation of two-level systems via strain induced by surface acoustic waves whose frequencies exceed the optical linewidth of the ion ensemble. Multiple sidebands and the reduction of their intensities appearing near the surface are evidence of a strong interaction between the acoustic waves and the ions. This development allows for on-chip control of long-lived ions and paves the way to highly coherent hybrid quantum systems with telecom photons, acoustic phonons, and electrons.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Cavity optomechanical liquid level meter using a twin-microbottle resonator

Cavity optomechanical devices can be made to have good compatibility with optical fiber technology by utilizing fiber-based waveguides and cavities and can be used in high-performance optical sensor applications. Such optomechanical microsensors have a great potential for exploring the properties of liquids, such as density, viscosity, and masses of included nanoparticles. However, as yet, there is no cavity optomechanical architecture that can be used to sense the liquid's shape, e.g., liquid level. In this paper, we report a demonstration of a liquid-level meter using a twin-microbottle resonator that can make measurements at arbitrary positions and depths in the liquid. The twin-microbottle resonator has a maximum diameter of 68 $μ$m and length of 800 $μ$m. By immersing one part of it in water and keeping the other part in air, the mechanical radial breathing mode can be read out sensitively while maintaining a high optical quality factor of the optical whispering gallery mode regardless of the water immersion. This high mechanical displacement sensitivity provides a frequency resolution that is high enough to measure the mechanical frequency shift due to the water immersion and resolves the water level to 2.6$\pm$0.9 pm. This unique liquid-level meter based on a highly sensitive cavity optomechanical setup can be used to detect tiny fluctuations of various air-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

A fiber-type optomechanical array using high-Q microbottle resonators

We demonstrate a fiber-type optomechanical array consisting of elastically interconnected silica microbottle resonators with high-Q optical and mechanical modes. In total, fifty optomechanical resonators fabricated by fine glass processing are uniformly arrayed on a silica fiber. Evanescent coupling of a tapered optical fiber to an arbitrary resonator allows for highly sensitive readout and efficient actuation of mechanical motion at an arbitrary position in the array. Phonon propagation through the fifty microbottles is achieved by both linearly and parametrically driving a mechanical mode at one end and by detecting it at the other end. This optomechanical array is scalable, tunable, and lithography-free and can be extended to fiber-based sensory applications with structural flexibility and operability in various environments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Evanescently coupled topological ring-waveguide systems for chip-scale ultrahigh frequency phononic circuits

Topological phononics enabling backscattering-immune transport is expected to improve the performance of electromechanical systems for classical and quantum information technologies. Nonetheless, most of the previous demonstrations utilized macroscale and low-frequency structures and thus offered little experimental insight into ultrahigh frequency phonon transport, especially in chip-scale circuits. Here, we report microwave phonon transmissions in a microscopic topological ring-waveguide coupled system, which is an important building block for wave-based signal processing. The elastic waves in the topological waveguide evanescently couple to the ring resonator, while maintaining the valley pseudospin polarization. The resultant waves are robust to backscattering even in the tiny hexagonal ring, generating a resonant phonon circulation. Furthermore, the evanescently coupled structure allows for a critical coupling, where valley-dependent ring-waveguide interference enables blocking of the topological edge transmission. Our demonstrations reveal the capability of using topological phenomena to manipulate ultrahigh frequency elastic waves in intricate phononic circuits for classical and quantum signal-processing applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Impedance-matched High-overtone Bulk Acoustic Resonator

A high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator (HBAR), in which a piezoelectric transducer is set on an acoustic cavity, has been attracting attention in both fundamental research and RF applications due to its scalability, high frequency, and high quality factor. The acoustic impedance matching in HBARs is crucial for efficient acoustic power transfer from the piezoelectric transducer to the cavity. However, impedance mismatch remains in most HBARs due to the metal layer insertion between the piezoelectric layer and cavity substrate. In this study, we fabricated a nearly impedance-matched high-quality HBAR using an epitaxial AlN piezoelectric layer directly grown on a conductive SiC cavity substrate with no metal layer insertion. The small impedance mismatch was verified from the variation in the free spectral range (FSR), which is comparable to the best value in previously reported HBARs. The experimentally obtained FSR spectra was greatly reproduced by using the Mason model. Broadband phonon cavity modes up to the K-band (26.5 GHz) were achieved by reducing the thickness of the AlN layer from 800 to 200 nm. The high figure of merit of $f\times\text{Q} \sim 1.3\times 10^{13}\ \textrm{Hz}$ at 10 GHz was also obtained. Our nearly impedance-matched high-quality HBAR will enable the development of RF applications, such as low-phase noise oscillators and acoustic filters, as well as research on high-frequency acoustic systems hybridized with electric, optical, and magnetic systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Free-space optomechanical liquid probes using a twin-microbottle resonator

Cavity optomechanics provides high-performance sensor technology, and the scheme is also applicable to liquid samples for biological and rheological applications. However, previously reported methods using fluidic capillary channels and liquid droplets are based on fixed-by-design structures and therefore do not allow an active free-space approach to the samples. Here, we demonstrate an alternate technique using a probe-based architecture with a twin-microbottle resonator. The probe consists of two microbottle optomechanical resonators, where one bottle (for detection) is immersed in liquid and the other bottle (for readout) is placed in air, which retains excellent detection performance through the high optical-Q (~107) of the readout bottle. The scheme allows the detection of thermomechanical motion of the detection bottle as well as its optomechanical sideband drive. This technique could lead to in-situ metrology at the target location in arbitrary media, and could be extended to ultrasensitive biochips and rheometers.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Cavity optomechanical mass sensor in water with sub-femtogram resolution

Sub-femtogram resolution of an in-liquid cavity optomechanical mass sensor based on the twin-microbottle glass resonator is demonstrated. An evaluation of the frequency stability using an optomechanical phase-locked loop reveals that this cavity optomechanical sensor has the highest mass resolution of $(7.0\times2.0)\times 10^{-16}$ g in water, which is four orders of magnitude better than that in our first-generation setup [Sci. Adv. 8, eabq2502 (2022)]. This highly sensitive mass sensor provides a free-access optomechanical probe in liquid and could thus be extended to a wide variety of in-situ chemical and biological metrology applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Phononic-crystal cavity magnomechanics

Establishing a way to control magnetic dynamics and elementary excitations (magnons) is crucial to fundamental physics and the search for novel phenomena and functions in magnetic solid-state systems. Electromagnetic waves have been developed as means of driving and sensing in magnonic and spintronics devices used in magnetic spectroscopy, non-volatile memory, and information processors. However, their millimeter-scale wavelengths and undesired cross-talk have limited operation efficiency and made individual control of densely integrated magnetic systems difficult. Here, we utilize acoustic waves (phonons) to control magnetic dynamics in a miniaturized phononic crystal micro-cavity and waveguide architecture. We demonstrate acoustic pumping of localized ferromagnetic magnons, where their back-action allows dynamic and mode-dependent modulation of phononic cavity resonances. The phononic crystal platform enables spatial driving, control and read-out of tiny magnetic states and provides a means of tuning acoustic vibrations with magnons. This alternative technology enhances the usefulness of magnons and phonons for advanced sensing, communications and computation architectures that perform transduction, processing, and storage of classical and quantum information.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

A Kuramoto Network in a Single Nonlinear Microelectromechanical Device

This work presents a frequency multiplexed 3-limit cycles network in a multimode microelectromechanical nonlinear resonator. The network is composed of libration limit cycles and behaves in an analogous manner to a phase oscillator network. The libration limit cycles, being of low frequency, interact through the stress tuning of the resonator, and result in an all-to-all coupling that can be described by a Kuramoto model. Beyond the typically present cubic nonlinearity the modes in question do not require any special frequency ratios. Thus an interconnect free Kuramoto network is established within a single physical device without the need for electrical or optical coupling mechanisms between the individual elements.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Buckling-induced quadratic nonlinearity in silicon phonon waveguide structures

We fabricated and characterized a single-crystal silicon phonon waveguide structure with lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric transducers. The compressive stress in a silicon-on-insulator wafer causes a membrane waveguide to buckle, leading to the quadratic nonlinearity. The PZT transducer integrated in an on-chip configuration enables us to excite high-intensity mechanical vibration, which allows the characterization of nonlinear behavior. We observed a softening nonlinear response as a function of the drive power and demonstrated the mode shift and frequency conversion. This is the first report of the nonlinear behavior caused by the quadratic nonlinearity in a buckled phonon waveguide structure. This study provides a method to control the sign and the order of nonlinearity in a phonon waveguide by utilizing the internal stress, which allows the precise manipulation of elastic waves in phononic integrated circuits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

The Librator: A new dynamical regime for nonlinear microelectromechanical devices

We present a novel mode of operation for Duffing-type nonlinear microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices whereby a self-sustained multi-frequency output is generated. This new librator regime creates a limit cycle around a dynamical fixed point, i.e. around fixed points within the rotating frame, whereas a traditional oscillator generates a limit cycle around a static fixed point. The librator limit cycles thus created do not change the global topology of the rotating frame phase space, but are constrained by it. Due to the Duffing nonlinearity different types of limit cycles may be generated within the same phase space, with each type possessing distinct dynamical features. Transitioning between these limit cycles requires crossing homoclinic bifurcations, which is done without generating chaos as the phase space dynamics are two dimensional. This work opens the possibility to the creation of a librator network in analogy with oscillator network, however this can be done in a single MEMS device.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Near-field cavity optomechanical coupling in a compound semiconductor nanowire

A III-V compound semiconductor nanowire is an attractive material for a novel hybrid quantum interface that interconnects photons, electrons, and phonons through a wavelength-tunable quantum structure embedded in its free-standing structure. In such a nanomechanical element, however, a challenge is how to detect and manipulate a small number of phonons via its tiny mechanical motion. A solution would be to couple an optical cavity to a nanowire by introducing the ``cavity optomechanics'' framework, but the typical size difference between them becomes a barrier to achieving this. Here, we demonstrate near-field coupling of a silica microsphere cavity and an epitaxially grown InP/InAs free-standing nanowire. The evanescent optomechanical coupling enables not only fine probing of the mechanical motion by balanced homodyne interferometry but also tuning of the resonance frequency, linewidth, Duffing nonlinearity, and vibration axis in the nanowire. Combining this cavity optomechanics with epitaxial nanowire engineering opens the way to novel quantum metrology and information processing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗