arXiv subjects

John P. Davis

Publications and source records attributed to John P. Davis.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Feedback-enabled magnomechanics in lithium ferrite

Lithium ferrite (LiFe) is a promising material for cavity magnonics because its large spin density enables strong coupling between magnons and microwave photons. Its potential for cavity magnomechanics, however, has remained unexplored. Here, we observe magnomechanical interactions in a single-crystal LiFe sphere using coherent microwave feedback to suppress dissipation of the cavity--magnon polariton. In the absence of sufficient feedback, the narrow mechanical response is difficult to resolve against the much broader polariton background. Increasing the feedback gain reduces the polariton linewidth and correspondingly increases the magnomechanical cooperativity, revealing a clear magnomechanically induced transparency feature. In the measurements presented here, the effective upper-polariton linewidth is reduced from $3.53~\mathrm{MHz}$ without feedback to $5.8~\mathrm{kHz}$ in the presence of feedback, while the measured cooperativity increases from $C=1.9\times10^{-3}$ to $C=0.15$. These measurements provide, to our knowledge, the first observation of cavity magnomechanics in LiFe and demonstrate coherent feedback as a practical route for accessing weak interactions that would otherwise be obscured by dissipation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Bistable Fourth Sound Resonance in Superfluid $^3$He-B due to Gap Suppression

Superfluidity in $^3$He exhibits many unique properties that are of interest to modern condensed matter research, including multiple superfluid phase transitions, topological defects, and exotic classes of excitations like Majorana and Weyl fermions. Many of the most interesting theoretical proposals, which remain underexplored, are realized in highly confined geometries, where surface effects play a dominant role in the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties. We have developed nanofluidic resonators capable of exciting a fourth-sound acoustic mode in thin channels with a highly confined dimension ($750-1800$ nm) that is only $1-2$ orders of magnitude larger than the superfluid coherence length. When a sufficiently large drive force is applied, we observe a non-linear softening of the resonance that we interpret as due to the flow suppression of the superfluid gap. We have developed a model of the device that allows the resonance amplitude to be calibrated into a superfluid velocity, which exhibits critical behavior at particular velocities. We identify one of the observed critical velocities as being the velocity at which the gap component parallel to the flow is suppressed to zero. We compare the calibrated velocity to the prediction of a Ginzburg-Landau model, and find reasonable agreement. This measurement represents an ongoing effort to link the hydrodynamic measurements of these nanofluidic devices to theoretical predictions regarding surface gap suppression and surface-bound states.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2026

Topologically-Protected Remnant Vortices in Confined Superfluid $^3$He

Symmetry breaking phase transitions from less to more ordered phases will typically produce topological defects in the ordered phase. Kibble-Zurek theory predicts that for any second-order phase transition, such as the early universe, the density of defects that form should be determined by the scaling law for the system coherence time and the phase transition quench time. We have performed measurements of fourth sound dissipation due to vortex mutual friction in thin channels of superfluid $^3$He where one spatial dimension is smaller than a characteristic length scale predicted by the Kibble-Zurek theory. Our measurements suggest that remnant vortices form after the normal to superfluid second-order phase transition, and that the density of vortices is correlated with the size of the channel, but crucially, is independent of quench time. We propose a modified picture of defect formation, where closely spaced walls prevent the ends of vortex lines from reconnecting into loops. This leads to a mean vortex separation set by the wall spacing, which can result in much higher defect densities than in bulk systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Dimensional crossover of superfluid $^{3}$He in a magnetic field

Motivated by recent experiments on superfluid $^3$He in nanoscale-confined geometries, we theoretically investigate the associated phase diagram in a slab geometry and perpendicular magnetic field as the size of confinement is varied. Our analysis is based on minimizing the Ginzburg--Landau free energy for the $3\times 3$ matrix superfluid order parameter for three different boundary conditions. We observe a smooth crossover from the phase diagram of the 3D system to the quasi-2D limit for slab heights of several hundred nanometres and magnetic fields of several kilogauss. We illuminate that, despite the apparent complexity of the underlying equations, many precise numerical and even analytical statements can be made about the phase structure for general values of the coefficients of the free energy functional, which can in turn be used to constrain or measure these parameters. To guide future experimental studies, we compute the phase diagram in dependence of pressure, temperature, slab height, and magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Photonic crystal cavities based on suspended yttrium iron garnet nanobeams

We report the fabrication and optical characterization of an air-suspended photonic crystal nanobeam cavity in yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) realized by focused-ion-beam milling. YIG's combination of low optical loss and ferrimagnetism makes it highly attractive for quantum technologies, yet prior work has largely been focused on millimeter-scale spheres and simple microstructures, hindering true on-chip integration. Demonstrating nanometer-scale patterning in a suspended geometry therefore represents an important advance. Finite-element simulations predict that the same structure supports a flapping-type mechanical mode at $Ω/ 2π\approx 1.52 \,\text{GHz}$ and a backward-volume spin-wave mode at $Ω/ 2π= 11.59 \,\text{GHz}$ under an in-plane bias field. Although we measure only the photonic resonance (intrinsic $Q \sim 2 \times 10^{3}$) in this study, the device lays the groundwork for future exploration of coupled photon-phonon-magnon dynamics once higher optical quality factors are achieved.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2024

Surface State Dissipation in Confined 3He-A

We have studied the power dependence of superfluid Helmholtz resonators in flat (750 and 1800 nm) rectangular channels. In the A-phase of superfluid 3He, we observe a non-linear response for velocities larger than a critical value. The small size of the channels stabilizes a static uniform texture that eliminates dissipative processes produced by changes in the texture. For such a static texture, the lowest velocity dissipative process is due to the pumping of surface bound states into the bulk liquid. We show that the temperature dependence of the critical velocity observed in our devices is consistent with this surface-state dissipation. Characterization of the force-velocity curves of our devices may provide a platform for studying the physics of exotic surface bound states in superfluid $^3$He.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2023

Three-Tone Coherent Microwave Electromechanical Measurement of a Superfluid Helmholtz Resonator

We demonstrate electromechanical coupling between a superfluid mechanical mode and a microwave mode formed by a patterned microfluidic chip and a 3D cavity. The electric field of the chip-cavity microwave resonator can be used to both drive and detect the motion of a pure superflow Helmholtz mode, which is dictated by geometric confinement. The coupling is characterized using a coherent measurement technique developed for measuring weak couplings deep in the sideband unresolved regime. The technique is based on two-probe optomechanically induced transparency/amplification using amplitude modulation. Instead of measuring two probe tones separately, they are interfered to retain only a signal coherent with the mechanical motion. With this method, we measure a vacuum electromechanical coupling strength of $g_0 = 2π\times 23.3$ $\mathrmμ$Hz, three orders of magnitude larger than previous superfluid electromechanical experiments.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Electromechanical feedback control of nanoscale superflow

Superfluid $^4$He is a promising material for optomechanical and electromechanical applications due to its low acoustic loss. Some of the more intriguing aspects of superfluidity -- the macroscopic coherence, topological nature of vorticity, and capability of supporting non-classical flows -- remain, however, poorly explored resources in opto- and electro-mechanical systems. Here, we present an electromechanical coupling to pure superflow inside a nanofluidic Helmholtz resonator with viscously clamped normal fluid. The system is capable of simultaneous measurement of displacement and velocity of the Helmholtz mechanical mode weakly driven by incoherent environmental noise. Additionally, we implement feedback capable of inducing self-oscillation of the non-classical acoustic mode, damping the motion below the ambient level, and tuning of the mode frequency.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Polymer-loaded three dimensional microwave cavities for hybrid quantum systems

Microwave cavity resonators are crucial components of many quantum technologies and are a promising platform for hybrid quantum systems, as their open architecture enables the integration of multiple subsystems inside the cavity volume. To support these subsystems within the cavity, auxiliary structures are often required, but the effects of these structures on the microwave cavity mode are difficult to predict due to a lack of a priori knowledge of the materials' response in the microwave regime. Understanding these effects becomes even more important when frequency matching is critical and tuning is limited, for example, when matching microwave modes to atomic resonances. Here, we study the microwave cavity mode in the presence of three commonly-used machinable polymers, paying particular attention to the change in resonance and the dissipation of energy. We demonstrate how to use the derived dielectric coefficient and loss tangent parameters for cavity design in a test case, wherein we match a polymer-filled 3D microwave cavity to a hyperfine transition in rubidium.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Ultra-Low Dissipation Superfluid Micromechanical Resonator

Micro and nanomechanical resonators with ultra-low dissipation have great potential as useful quantum resources. The superfluid micromechanical resonators presented here possess several advantageous characteristics: straightforward thermalization, dissipationless flow, and in situ tunability. We identify and quantitatively model the various dissipation mechanisms in two resonators, one fabricated from borosilicate glass and one from single crystal quartz. As the resonators are cryogenically cooled into the superfluid state, the damping from thermal effects and from the normal fluid component are strongly suppressed. At our lowest temperatures, damping is limited solely by internal dissipation in the substrate materials, and reach quality factors up to 913,000 at 13 mK. By lifting this limitation through substrate material choice and resonator design, modelling suggests that the resonators should reach quality factors as high as 10$^8$ at 100 mK, putting this architecture in an ideal position to harness mechanical quantum effects.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Dissipative and Dispersive Optomechanics in a Nanocavity Torque Sensor

Dissipative and dispersive optomechanical couplings are experimentally observed in a photonic crystal split-beam nanocavity optimized for detecting nanoscale sources of torque. Dissipative coupling of up to approximately $500$ MHz/nm and dispersive coupling of $2$ GHz/nm enable measurements of sub-pg torsional and cantilever-like mechanical resonances with a thermally-limited torque detection sensitivity of 1.2$\times 10^{-20} \text{N} \, \text{m}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ in ambient conditions and 1.3$\times 10^{-21} \text{N} \, \text{m}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ in low vacuum. Interference between optomechanical coupling mechanisms is observed to enhance detection sensitivity and generate a mechanical-mode-dependent optomechanical wavelength response.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗