Optomechanical crystal in light-resilient quantum ground state

Interaction between light and high-frequency sound is a key area in integrated photonics, quantum and nonlinear optics, and quantum science. However, the typical suspended optomechanical structures suffer from poor thermal anchoring, making them susceptible to thermal noise arising from optical absorption. Here, we demonstrate a chip-scale, release-free silicon optomechanical crystal cavity (OMC) operating cryogenically with improved resilience to laser light. Relative to a suspended nanobeam OMC, we observe an 18 dB suppression of the thermo-optic effect, and the device sustains near-unity phonon occupation at 35 dB higher intracavity optical energy. Time-resolved measurements further reveal rapid initial thermalization governed by the mechanical decay time. With further material and design improvements in sight, these results bolster release-free systems on a chip as a path for low-noise and high-power classical and quantum electro-optomechanics, such as for frequency converters between microwave and optical photons.