Nanomechanical Crystalline AlN Resonators with High Quality Factors for Quantum Optoelectromechanics

Abstract

High-quality factor (Q_m) mechanical resonators are crucial for applications where low noise and long coherence time are required, as mirror suspensions, quantum cavity optomechanical devices, or nanomechanical sensors. Tensile strain in the material enables the use of dissipation dilution and strain engineering techniques, which increase the mechanical quality factor. These techniques have been employed for high-Q_m mechanical resonators made from amorphous materials and, recently, from crystalline materials such as InGaP, SiC, and Si. A strained crystalline film exhibiting substantial piezoelectricity expands the capability of high-Q_m nanomechanical resonators to directly utilize electronic degrees of freedom. In this work, nanomechanical resonators with Q_m up to 2.9 × 10⁷ made from tensile-strained 290 nm-thick AlN are realized. AlN is an epitaxially-grown crystalline material offering strong piezoelectricity. Nanomechanical resonators that exploit dissipation dilution and strain engineering to reach a Q_m × f_m-product approaching 10¹³ Hz at room temperature are demonstrated. A novel resonator geometry is realized, triangline, whose shape follows the Al–N bonds and offers a central pad patterned with a photonic crystal. This allows to reach an optical reflectivity above 80% for efficient coupling to out-of-plane light. The presented results pave the way for quantum optoelectromechanical devices at room temperature based on tensile-strained AlN.