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Updated: Sep 21, 2025
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Fabrication and Testing of Microfluidic Optomechanical Oscillators
Published on: May 29, 2014
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Non-Hermitian chiral phononics through optomechanically induced squeezing.
Javier Del Pino1,2, Jesse J Slim3, Ewold Verhagen4
1Center for Nanophotonics, AMOLF, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. jdelpino@phys.ethz.ch.
Nature
|June 1, 2022
Summary
Researchers created chiral phononic states by breaking time-reversal symmetry and using non-Hermitian dynamics in nano-optomechanical systems. This enables unique energy flow and Aharonov-Bohm effects in mechanical resonators.
Area of Science:
- Quantum physics
- Condensed matter physics
- Optomechanics
Background:
- Chirality in physical systems leads to unique energy flow and responses, like the Aharonov-Bohm effect.
- Combining chirality with broken Hermiticity is a growing area for exploring novel topological phases.
- Symmetry breaking and non-Hermitian dynamics are key concepts in modern physics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate phononic states with unique symmetries and dynamics by combining broken time-reversal symmetry with non-Hermitian dynamics.
- To explore chiral energy flow and Aharonov-Bohm effects in nano-optomechanical networks.
- To observe and analyze the non-Hermitian Aharonov-Bohm effect and its implications for topological bosonic phases.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing time-modulated radiation pressure forces in small nano-optomechanical networks.
- Inducing broken time-reversal symmetry and non-Hermitian dynamics.
- Introducing particle-non-conserving squeezing interactions in ring-shaped networks.
Main Results:
- Observation of chiral energy flow among mechanical resonators in a synthetic dimension.
- Demonstration of Aharonov-Bohm tuning of mechanical resonator eigenmodes.
- Observation of a non-Hermitian Aharonov-Bohm effect with parametric gain, complex mode spectra, and flux-tuning of squeezing, exceptional points, and instabilities.
Conclusions:
- The study reveals novel phononic states with unique symmetries and dynamics.
- The findings demonstrate the potential for exploring new non-Hermitian topological bosonic phases.
- This work opens avenues for applications in sensing and transport leveraging spatiotemporal symmetry breaking.
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