We investigate the optomechanical properties of a periodic array of identical scatterers placed inside an optical cavity and extend our previous results [Xuereb, Genes, and Dantan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 223601 (2012)]. We show that operating at the points where the array is transmissive results in linear optomechanical coupling strengths between the cavity field and collective motional modes of the array that may be several orders of magnitude larger than is possible with an equivalent reflective ensemble. We describe and interpret these effects in detail and investigate the nature of the scaling laws of the coupling strengths for the different transmissive points in various regimes.
Enhanced optomechanical readout using optical coalescence
Claudiu Genes,
Andre Xuereb,
Guido Pupillo,
Aurelien Dantan
We present a scheme to strongly enhance the readout sensitivity of the squared displacement of a mobile scatterer placed in a Fabry-Perot cavity. We investigate the largely unexplored regime of cavity electrodynamics in which a highly reflective element positioned between the end mirrors of a symmetric Fabry-Perot resonator strongly modifies the cavity response function, such that two longitudinal modes with different spatial parity are brought close to frequency degeneracy and interfere in the cavity output field. In the case of a movable middle reflector we show that the interference in this generic "optical coalescence" phenomenon gives rise to an enhanced frequency shift of the peaks of the cavity transmission that can be exploited in optomechanics.
Protected State Enhanced Quantum Metrology with Interacting Two-Level Ensembles
Ramsey interferometry is routinely used in quantum metrology for the most sensitive measurements of optical clock frequencies. Spontaneous decay to the electromagnetic vacuum ultimately limits the interrogation time and thus sets a lower bound to the optimal frequency sensitivity. In dense ensembles of two-level systems, the presence of collective effects such as superradiance and dipole-dipole interaction tends to decrease the sensitivity even further. We show that by a redesign of the Ramsey-pulse sequence to include different rotations of individual spins that effectively fold the collective state onto a state close to the center of the Bloch sphere, partial protection from collective decoherence is possible. This allows a significant improvement in the sensitivity limit of a clock transition detection scheme over the conventional Ramsey method for interacting systems and even for noninteracting decaying atoms.