Witlef Wieczorek

Abstract Dielectric metasurfaces that combine high-index materials with optical nonlinearities are recognized for their potential in quantum and classical nanophotonic applications. However, the fabrication of high-quality metasurfaces poses material-dependent challenges, as their designs are often susceptible to disorder, defects, and scattering losses, mostly occurring at the edges of nanostructured features.

An optomechanical microcavity can considerably enhance the interaction between light and mechanical motion by confining light to a subwavelength volume. However, this comes at the cost of an increased optical loss rate. Therefore, microcavity-based optomechanical systems are placed in the unresolved-sideband regime, preventing sideband-based ground-state cooling.

We present a detailed study of mechanically compliant, photonic crystal based microcavities featuring a quasibound state in the continuum. Such systems were recently predicted to reduce the optical loss in Fabry-Pérot-type optomechanical cavities. However, they require two identical photonic crystal slabs facing each other, which poses a considerable challenge for experimental implementation.