Advent of torsional optomechanics from Beth’s legacy

Laser optomechanics

Cavity optomechanics explores the interaction between optical field and mechanical motion. So far, this interaction has relied on the detuning between a passive optical resonator and an external pump laser. Here, we report a new scheme with mutual coupling between a mechanical oscillator supporting the mirror of a laser and the optical field generated by the laser itself. The optically active c...

Precession optomechanics.

We propose a light-structure interaction that utilizes circularly polarized light to deform a slightly bent waveguide. The mechanism allows for flipping the direction of deformation upon changing the binary polarization state of light from -ℏ to +ℏ.

Optomechanics of Soft Materials

Some molecules change shape upon receiving photons of certain frequencies, but here we study light-induced deformation in ordinary dielectrics with no special optical effects. All dielectrics deform in response to light of all frequencies. We derive a dimensionless number to estimate when light can induce large deformation. For a structure made of soft dielectrics, with feature size comparable ...

Advent of Elkosin

Superfluid Brillouin optomechanics

Optomechanical systems couple an electromagnetic cavity to a mechanical resonator which typically is a solid object. The range of phenomena accessible in these systems depends on the properties of the mechanical resonator and on the manner in which it couples to the cavity fields. In both respects, a mechanical resonator formed from superfluid liquid helium o ers several appealing features: low...