ABSTRACT
In most experiments to date the vacuum optomechanical coupling rate g0 has been small compared to the dissipative rates of the system. In Chapter 2 we showed how to compensate for this by linearising the nonlinear dynamics about the steady-state amplitude αss in the cavity to give an effective coupling constant g ≡ g0αss. This approach fails in regimes where g0 is sufficiently large for the presence of a single-photon to significantly alter the system dynamics. It also fails when the cavity is not driven by a coherent field, for example, a sequence of single-photon states, as in that case the average amplitude of the field is zero. In this chapter we consider what happens when the optomechanical coupling rate is sufficiently large that a single-photon can be used to control the mechanical motion. This is now possible in optomechanics experi-
yet been in macroscopic solid-state optomechanical systems. However, rapid experimental progress is being made in engineering large single-photon optomechanical coupling in technologies such as optomechanical crystals at optical frequencies[99] and bulk-element superconducting resonators at microwave frequencies[227]. Indeed, evidence of the effect of single microwave photons on the dynamics of the mechanical resonator has been reported in [227].
