Abstract

Signal reception of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) usually relies on electrical amplification of the electromotive force caused by nuclear induction. Here, we report up-conversion of a radio-frequency NMR signal to an optical regime using a high-stress silicon nitride membrane that interfaces the electrical detection circuit and an optical cavity through the electro-mechanical and the opto-mechanical couplings. This enables optical NMR detection without sacrificing the versatility of the traditional nuclear induction approach. While the signal-to-noise ratio is currently limited by the Brownian motion of the membrane as well as additional technical noise, we find it can exceed that of the conventional electrical schemes by increasing the electro-mechanical coupling strength. The electro-mechano-optical NMR detection presented here opens the possibility of mechanical parametric amplification of NMR signals. Moreover, it can potentially be combined with the laser cooling technique applied to nuclear spins. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Publication Details
Publication Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2018
Volume
5
Number of Pages
152-158
DOI
10.1364/optica.5.000152
Journal
Optica
Contributors