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.