Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA.
Nat Commun. 2017 Mar 1;8:14481. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14481.
Correlated phases of matter provide long-term stability for systems as diverse as solids, magnets and potential exotic quantum materials. Mechanical systems, such as buckling transition spring switches, can have engineered, stable configurations whose dependence on a control variable is reminiscent of non-equilibrium phase transitions. In hybrid optomechanical systems, light and matter are strongly coupled, allowing engineering of rapid changes in the force landscape, storing and processing information, and ultimately probing and controlling behaviour at the quantum level. Here we report the observation of first- and second-order buckling transitions between stable mechanical states in an optomechanical system, in which full control of the nature of the transition is obtained by means of the laser power and detuning. The underlying multiwell confining potential we create is highly tunable, with a sub-nanometre distance between potential wells. Our results enable new applications in photonics and information technology, and may enable explorations of quantum phase transitions and macroscopic quantum tunnelling in mechanical systems.
相关物质相为固体、磁铁和潜在的奇异量子材料等各种系统提供了长期的稳定性。机械系统，如屈曲过渡弹簧开关，可以具有工程化的、稳定的配置，其对控制变量的依赖类似于非平衡相变。在混合光机械系统中，光和物质强烈耦合，允许快速改变力场，存储和处理信息，并最终在量子水平上探测和控制行为。在这里，我们报告了在光机械系统中观察到稳定机械状态之间的一级和二级屈曲转变，其中通过激光功率和失谐来完全控制转变的性质。我们创建的多阱约束势具有高度可调性，阱之间的距离小于亚纳米。我们的结果为光子学和信息技术中的新应用开辟了道路，并可能探索机械系统中的量子相变和宏观量子隧道效应。
