A challenge in the field of optomechanics has been to realize a mechanically compliant mirror that unites high reflectivity with ultracoherent nanomechanics. We have addressed this challenge and developed such a mirror based on a nanopillar metasurface.
Our mirror achieves a reflectivity of 99.82% for a strongly focused beam of 7 micrometer and at the same time hosts an ultracoherent mechanical mode with a quality factor of larger than 10^8, reaching the regime of coherent mechanics at room temperature.
We are confident to achieve even higher reflectivity when using a less absorptive material for the nanopillar patterning.
Curious how it all works? Have a look at our recent preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31452
Great work lead by Alexander Jung and Anastasiia Ciers with support from Hannes Pfeifer, Albert Hansson, Johanna Örgård, fiber mirrors from Daniel Stachanow, and theory modeling with Viktor Lilja and Philippe Tassin.
