Carrier-mediated cavity optomechanics in a semiconductor laser

Abstract

Coherent interaction between photons and phonons plays a central role in cavity optomechanics. Additional physical degrees of freedom, such as electrons or atoms, can control the optomechanical interaction and thus serve as a coherent link between photons and phonons. Here, we study cavity optomechanics in a semiconductor gain medium where the inverted carriers interact collectively with the photons and phonons via the carrier relaxation oscillation and optical gain effects. With carrier relaxation oscillation, the carriers are coupled coherently to the mechanical modes via the optical field, which can be used to manipulate the phonon state. With optical gain effect, the inverted carrier population can tune the interaction between photons and phonons, rendering an enhancement of optomechanically induced slow light effect and a transition from optomechanically induced transparency to optomechanically induced absorption. The semiconductor-laser-based optomechanical systems offer substantial flexibility in coherent control of the photons and phonons, which may find wide applications in quantum metrology, information processing, and semiconductor laser engineering.