Ultra-low-noise microwave to optics conversion in gallium phosphide

Robert Stockill, Moritz Forsch, Frederick Hijazi, Grégoire Beaudoin, Konstantinos Pantzas, Isabelle Sagnes, Rémy Braive, Simon Gröblacher*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
80 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Mechanical resonators can act as excellent intermediaries to interface single photons in the microwave and optical domains due to their high quality factors. Nevertheless, the optical pump required to overcome the large energy difference between the frequencies can add significant noise to the transduced signal. Here we exploit the remarkable properties of thin-film gallium phosphide to demonstrate bi-directional on-chip conversion between microwave and optical frequencies, realized by piezoelectric actuation of a Gigahertz-frequency optomechanical resonator. The large optomechanical coupling and the suppression of two-photon absorption in the material allows us to operate the device at optomechanical cooperativities greatly exceeding one. Alternatively, when using a pulsed upconversion pump, we demonstrate that we induce less than one thermal noise phonon. We include a high-impedance on-chip matching resonator to mediate the mechanical load with the 50-Ω source. Our results establish gallium phosphide as a versatile platform for ultra-low-noise conversion of photons between microwave and optical frequencies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6583
Number of pages12
JournalNature Communications
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

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