Final Report Summary - OPTOMECH (Theory of optomechanical circuits)
The project aimed to analyze "optomechanical circuits", i.e. physical systems consisting of many optical and mechanical modes that are coupled by radiation pressure. We were able to establish that periodic arrays of such coupled modes can display both novel transport phenomena of photons and phonons, as well as interesting nonlinear dynamics. For example, the first proposal for topologically protected transport of sound waves in the solid state was our design based on an optomechanical array driven by a laser field with a suitably chosen phase pattern. First devices, e.g. based on photonic crystals, are now being built, taking up the ideas that were suggested theoretically in the present ERC project. Moreover, we showed how such optomechanical circuits could be used for quantum information processing, improved readout of mechanical motion, for observing first signs of the nonlinear nature of the photon-phonon interaction, or engineering artificial magnetic fields for photons on a lattice.