Yale Researchers Couple Microwave Photons to 110 GHz Phonons

Researchers at Yale University, led by Boxuan Tian, Jiacheng Xie, and Hong X. Tang in the Department of Electrical Engineering, have demonstrated the ability to excite mechanical vibrations at 110 GHz within a bulk lithium niobate crystal, with cooperativity up to 16.6 at 110 GHz. This enables efficient, non-contact excitation of centimeter-scale, milligram-mass vibrational modes across 7.0, 110 GHz, and establishes a versatile platform for precision tests of mechanical quantum physics at elevated temperatures and potentially enables new hybrid quantum technologies. Mechanical quality factors reach up to 30,000 at W band frequencies. A milligram-scale lithium niobate crystal has been made to vibrate at 110 gigahertz,…