Applications of nanoelectromechanical actuators in nano optomechanics

An approach to experimentally measure the optomechanical coupling coefficients of the coupled cavities is developed, which is based on the ultra-fine positioning capability of nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) actuators. In addition, with the same nanophotonic device, we report a novel NEMS approach to control the optical bistability in the double-coupled photonic crystal cavities. In this approach, the gap spacing between two coupled cavities is scanned by the NEMS actuator. Hysteresis loops characterizing the optical bistability are experimentally observed.