Electronic and magnetic spectroscopy system for spin-optomechanics

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Optomechanical devices use light as a ruler to measure miniscule fluctuations in the position of mechanical objects. These devices can be implemented over size scales ranging from massive (e.g., LIGO) to microscopic (e.g. vibrations of laser trapped atoms), and underlie fundamental studies of mechanical objects as well as practical instruments for detecting forces and storing information. The equipment described in this request for Research Tools and Instruments is urgently needed to perform world leading experiments using optomechanical devices to control and measure nanoscale electronic and magnetic properties of materials - spins - that are essential elements for future quantum information processing and sensing technologies. The requested funding for equipment complements NSERC Discovery, Accelerator and Strategic Partnership funding awarded to the Barclay lab in 2016 to support HQP researching spin-optomechanics, and is critically needed for these HQP to successfully complete their projects. During the past two years HQP in the Barclay lab have developed nanoscale optomechanical devices that are breakthroughs on two fronts: they have demonstrated one of the first applications of a nanoscale cavity optomechanical sensor, and have created the world’s first single crystal diamond optomechanical devices. In addition to displaying properties such as record low mechanical dissipation and high sensitivity to external forces, these devices are among the first to connect cavity optomechanics with electronic and magnetic spins. If they can be operated at low temperature and in precisely controlled magnetic and RF fields, and if their spins can be precisely addressed, they offer an unrivaled platform for optomechanically probing and controlling spin systems and will be of intense interest for quantum information processing applications. However, the apparatus needed to achieve these requirements is not currently available in the Barclay lab. This request for research tools and instruments addresses this deficiency, and will enable the exceptional performance and spin hosting ability of devices in the Barclay lab to be harnessed by HQP for demonstrations of never before observed coupling between light, mechanical vibrations, and spins. Achieving such photon-phonon-spin coupling is a major goal of several international research groups, and with the requested equipment HQP in the Barclay lab will be in a leading position to achieve this goal first. This apparatus will also enable optomechanical detection of the properties of magnetic nanostructures with world record sensitivity. Such studies will make major impacts and further strengthen Canada’s position as a leader in the emerging field of spin-optomechanics. Without the requested equipment, this advantage will be lost as competing researchers catch up, and the impact of the work will be severely diminished.