Silicon nitride cavity optomechanical transducers

Planar fabrication technology has enabled the demonstration of on-chip systems in which interacting nanophotonic and nanomechanical resonators are directly integrated within a common platform. Such devices can be used for a variety of purposes in sensing, precision measurement, and signal transduction. Here, we review different nanocavity optomechanical systems that we are developing in thin film, stoichiometric Si3N4, in which mechanical modes with frequencies ranging from a few MHz to a few GHz are coupled to the optical modes of structures such as microdisk and photonic crystal cavities.