Existence conditions for phononic frequency combs

Published

November 5, 2020

Author(s)

Zhen Qi, Curtis R. Menyuk, Jason Gorman, Adarsh V. Ganesan

Abstract

Recently, the mechanical analog of optical frequency combs, phononic frequency combs, have been demonstrated in mechanical resonators and have gained interest since their comb frequencies can be in the range of kilohertz to gigahertz. The physical origin for the generation of phononic frequency combs is the parametric coupling between multiple phonon modes but the analytical details for comb generation have not been explored in detail. This paper considers the case of two coupled phonon modes and investigates the influence of modal properties, such as resonance frequencies and quality factors, on comb generation. It has been found that there is only one existence zone for phononic frequency combs when two modes interact. In addition, expressions showing how the resonance frequencies and quality factors of the two modes affect the drive amplitudes and frequencies required for comb generation are presented and discussed. These results will enable comb structure engineering for specific application in areas as broad as sensing, communications, and quantum information science.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

117

Issue

18

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0025314

Local Download

Keywords

frequency comb, phonon, mechanical resonator, coupled modes, MEMS

Citation

Qi, Z. , Menyuk, C. , Gorman, J. and Ganesan, A. (2020), Existence conditions for phononic frequency combs, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0025314 , https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=929496 (Accessed October 12, 2025)