Optically controlled mechanical metamaterials – Steering vibration on a chip

• Applicant: Dr. Hannes Pfeifer
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics ; Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 557728597

In this project, we will demonstrate how light can shape the collective properties of mechanical metamaterials. To this end, we will utilize arrays of optical cavities as an interface for an on-chip, microstructured lattice of mechanical resonator elements. The achievable dynamic control of the mechanical system will enable us to optically steer the propagation of vibration on-chip and investigate dynamic transitions in bulk and boundary properties of the mechanical metamaterial. We will use an optical micro-cavity-based, membrane-in-the-middle type approach, where light and mechanics interact through the radiation pressure of the light or conversely the modulation of the cavity resonance frequency due to the mechanical resonator displacement. The realization of the optical cavity array out-of the mechanical device plane will allow us to implement a dramatically larger number of interface sites shifting from few coupled optomechanical resonators to a whole metamaterial. Our development will enable in-situ reconfigurable acoustic circuits, and establish a tunable platform to investigate collective mechanical phenomena that is integrable with on-chip quantum systems and can serve as a collective sensing device, for e.g. mass and force.

• DFG Programme: Emmy Noether Independent Junior Research Groups
• International Connection: Sweden
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Witlef Wieczorek