Optical trapping of metallic nanoparticles investigates phenomena at the interface of plasmonics and optical micromanipulation. This thesis combines ideas from the optical properties of metals, originating in solid-state physics, with the force mechanisms resulting from optical trapping. I explore the influence of enhanced light-matter interaction due to the plasmon resonances of gold particles on their trapping properties. I present theories for trapping mechanisms of gold metallic particles and then verify these theories through experiments. Optical trapping of metallic nanoparticles is considered challenging, especially in air, as they are highly absorbing and reflecting at optical wavelengths. Yet the optical levitation of these particles provides an excellent tool to investigate their plasmonic properties away from any interface and offers opportunities to explore interaction processes between light and particles. The optical and thermal forces acting on the particle depend on their microscopic optical and thermal properties. These parameters vary drastically around the plasmon resonance, thus not only changing the magnitude but also the direction and entire nature of the acting forces. So far, optical trapping of metallic particles has focused on wavelengths far from the particle's resonance in the infrared, and on liquids rather than air. In this thesis, I concentrate on optical trapping of gold micro and nanoparticles, expanding the knowledge of metallic nanoparticle trapping available to date. In Mie regime, I present both the theory and experiment of a trapping scheme based on dynamic potential manipulation that is capable of trapping gold microparticles in air for more than one hour. In the dipole regime, I present a theory based on nonlinear optical trapping which opens new insights in the field of levitated optomechanics. For the first time, I show that two-photon absorption is the reason for the longitudinal stability of gold nanoparticles. This theory correctly addresses the effect of four-wave mixing and two-photon absorption on the behavior of the trapping system.

<p dir="ltr">This work is the first report of optically addressable spin qubits in a semi-1D material, Boron Nitride Nanotubes (BNNTs). We perform the characterization of these spin defects and utilize their properties to do omnidirectional magnetic field sensing. We transfer these BNNTs with spin defects onto an AFM cantilever and perform scanning probe magnetometry of a 2D Nickel pattern on a gold waveguide. </p>

An optomechanical system consists of an optical cavity coupled to a mechanical oscillator. The system used for this work was a silica microsphere. In a silica microsphere, the optical cavity is formed by light that is confined by total internal reflection while circulating around the equator of the sphere. The mechanical oscillator is the mechanical breathing motion of the sphere itself. The optical cavity and mechanical oscillator are coupled by radiation pressure and by the mechanical oscillator physically changing the length of the optical cavity. The optomechanical analog to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), known as optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT), has previously been studied in its steady state. One topic of this dissertation is an experimental study of OMIT in the time domain. The results of these experimental demonstrations continue comparisons between EIT and OMIT, while also building a foundation for optomechanical light storage. In OMIT, an off-resonance control laser controls the interaction between on-resonance light and the mechanical oscillator. Optomechanical light storage makes use of this arrangement to store an optical signal as a mechanical excitation, which is then retrieved at a later time as an optical signal. This is done by using two temporally separated off-resonance control laser pulses. This technique is extremely flexible in frequency and displays a storage lifetime on the order of microseconds. Use of optomechanical systems for quantum mechanical applications is hindered by the thermal background noise of the mechanical oscillator. Addressing this issue by first cooling the mechanical oscillator is costly and fraught with difficulties. The final topic presented in this dissertation deals with this issue through the use of an optomechanical dark mode. Two optical modes can interact with the same mechanical mode. The dark mode is a state that couples the two optical modes but is decoupled from the mechanical oscillator. While our specific optomechanical system is limited by its somewhat modest optomechanical cooperativity, this conversion process can, in principle, preserve the quantum state of the signal, even at room temperature, opening the possibility for this technique to be applied in quantum information processing.

Le but de cette thèse est d'atteindre l'état de mouvement fondamental sur des disques optomécaniques en arseniure de gallium. La mécanique quantique prévoit en effet que la quantité d'énergie d'un système physique (mécanique ou autre) ne peut jamais être réduite totalement à zéro. Il existe cependant un état de plus basse énergie, que l'on appelle l'état fondamental. L'effet physique utilisé pendant cette thèse pour extraire de l'énergie du système (et ainsi atteindre l'état fondamental) est le couplage opto-mécanique. Les micro-disques supportent des résonances optiques à symétrie axiale appelées modes de galerie ainsi que des résonances mécaniques appelées modes de respiration. Le couplage entre ces deux modes peut être intuitivement compris comme suit: lorsque le disque "respire" mécaniquement, la circonférence du disque ressentie par le mode optique change, ce qui induit un décalage de sa longueur d'onde de résonance. A l'inverse, le mode optique exerce une pression de radiation sur les parois du disque, qui peut amplifier ou atténuer le mouvement mécanique. Le refroidissement opto-mécanique est d'autant plus efficace que les résonances (optique comme mécanique) ont de faibles taux de dissipation. Une grande partie de ce travail de thèse à donc été dédiée à la réduction de ces pertes. Des efforts technologiques ont permis d'obtenir des structures lisses et régulières, pour éviter la diffusion (et donc la dissipation) de lumière par rugosités. Afin de réduire la dissipation mécanique, une structure novatrice incluant des boucliers mécaniques à été développée, et à permis de réduire la dissipation mécanique d'un facteur 100. L'état du système après refroidissement opto-mécanique dépend par ailleurs de sa température initiale. Il est donc avantageux de placer l'échantillon dans un cryostat. L'appareil utilisé au cours de cette thèse permet de refroidir l'échantillon jusqu'à une température de 2,6 K. Les expériences de photonique en environnement cryogénique imposant des contraintes en terme de stabilité, il a été nécessaire de d'opter pour une approche avec guide d'onde intégré. Le développement de guides d'ondes entièrement suspendus a permis d'apporter et de collecter la lumière depuis le disque de manière optimale. Toutes ces efforts ont permis de descendre à un taux d'occupation mécanique de 30 quanta. Cependant de nombreuses améliorations peuvent encore être implémentées, afin d'ancrer ces résonateurs fermement dans l'état fondamental, ce qui permettrait d'effectuer par exemple des expériences d'intrication quantique / The main goal of this PhD work has been to reach the quantum ground state on gallium arsenide optomechanical disks. Quantum mechanics predict that the amount of energy within a given system cannot be brought to zero. Nevertheless a state of minimal energy exists, called the ground state. The physical mechanism used to extract energy from the system (and thus reach the ground state) is the optomechanical coupling. The miniature disks support optical and mechanical resonances, respectively called whispering gallery modes and radial breathing modes. The coupling between these two modes can be intuited as follows: when the disk breathes mechanically, its perimeter increases. The optical mode evolves now in a wider cavity, and its resonance wavelength therefore changes. Conversely, the optical mode exerts radiation pressure on the disk boundaries, which can either amplify or damp the mechanical motion. Optomechanical cooling is more efficient if the dissipation rates of the optical and mechanical resonances are low. An important part of this PhD work has therefore been dedicated to the reduction of dissipation. Technological efforts have been made to fabricate smooth and regular structures, so as to limit optical scattering. A novel approach consisting of a mechanical shield has allowed to reduce mechanical damping by a factor of 100. The system state after optomechanical cooling depends on its initial temperature. It is therefore advantageous to place the system in cryogenic environment prior to starting the optomechanical cooling. The apparatus used throughout this PhD work can cool the optomechanical device down to 2.6 K. As optical experiments in cryogenic environment require a good mechanical stability, it is necessary to opt for fully integrated devices where the optomechanical resonator and the waveguide bringing the light to it are processed on the same chip. The development of fully suspended waveguides has moreover allowed to inject and collect light from the device more efficiently. All these improvements have allowed to reach a state of 30 excitation quanta in the mechanical resonator. However many ideas can still be tried to keep enhancing the devices, so as to anchor them more firmly in the ground state. This would open the way to more advanced experiments, such as entanglement of mechanical oscillators

The recent demonstration of strong interactions between optical force and mechanical motion of an optomechanical structure has led to the triumphant result of mechanical ground-state cooling, where the quantum nature of a macroscopic object is revealed. Another intriguing demonstration of quantum physics on a macroscopic level is the measurement of the Casimir force which is a manifestation of the zero- point energy. An interesting aspect of the Casimir effect is that the anharmonicity of the Casimir potential becomes significant when the separation of microscale objects is in the sub-100nm regime. This regime is readily accessible by many of the realized gradient-force-based optomechanical structures. Hence, a new avenue of probing the Casimir effect on-chip all-optically has become available. We propose an integrated optomechanical platform, consisting of a suspended photonic crystal membrane evanescently coupled with a silicon-on-insulator substrate, for (i) measuring the Casimir force gradient and (ii) counteracting the attractive force by exerting a resonantly enhanced repulsive optical gradient force. This thesis first presents the full characterization of the optomechanical properties of the system in vacuo. The interplay of the optical gradient force (optomechanical coupling strength \(g_{om}/2\pi=- 66GHz/nm\)) and the photothermal force manifested in the optical spring effect and dynamic backaction is elucidated. Static displacement by the repulsive force of 1nm/mW is also demonstrated. In the second part of the thesis, the nonlinear mechanical signatures upon a strong coherent drive are reported. By resonantly driving the photonic crystal membrane with a piezo-actuator and an optical gradient force, we observed mechanical frequency mixing, mechanical bistability and non-trivial interactions of the Brownian peak with the driving signal. Finally we present our recent progress in establishing electro- static control of individual photonic crystal membranes to reduce and calibrate the electrostatic artifact which plagues Casimir measurements. The results discussed in this thesis point towards an auspicious future of a complete realization of a Casimir optomechanical structure and novel applications with nonlinearity afforded by the Casimir force and the optical gradient force. / Engineering and Applied Sciences

Le but de la Nano- Opto- Mécanique et Electronic à base de graphène est d'utiliser des membranes de graphène en suspension comme blocs de construction pour aborder le couplage entre l'optique, la mécanique et l'électronique dans ce nouveau matériau. Avec un module d'Young similaire à celui du diamant (1 TPA), le graphène est une membrane extrêmement rigide, légère et mince (epaaisseur de seulement un atome) qui peut supporter son propre poids sans effondrement ou la rupture lorsqu'il est suspendu. Ces membranes, intégrées dans des dispositifs mécaniques, peuvent être actionnés à partir de DC jusqu'à des fréquences de vibration mécaniques très élevées (GHz). En outre, le graphène est un gaz d'électrons 2D exposé pour lequel une porte électrostatique tunes considérablement la densité de porteurs de charge et ses propriétés optiques. Last but not least, il offre une architecture unique pour effectuer la fonctionnalisation physico-chimiques et obtenir des matériaux hybrides combinant les propriétés particulières des espèces chimisorbées avec ceux du graphène. / The aim of the Graphene Nano- Opto- Mechanics and Electronics is to use suspended graphene membranes as building blocks to address the coupling of optics, mechanics and electronics in this novel material. With a Young modulus similar to that of diamond (1 TPa), graphene is an extremely stiff, light and atomically thin membrane that can withstand its own weight without collapsing or breaking when suspended. Such membranes, integrated as mechanical devices, can be actuated from DC up to very high mechanical vibration frequencies (GHz). Moreover, graphene is an exposed 2D electron gas for which an electrostatic gate dramatically tunes the charge carrier density and its optical properties. Last but not least, it provides a unique architecture to perform physico-chemical functionalization and obtain hybrid materials combining the peculiar properties of adsorbed and chemisorbed species with the graphene ones.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le domaine de l'opto-mécanique et propose l'utilisation de différentes techniques de mesure et de manipulation des propriétés mécaniques de nano-structures.La première partie de ce travail est dédiée aux fils photoniques. Ces objets sont des structures en GaAs en forme de cône inversé, avec une longueur d’une dizaine de µm et un diamètre inférieur au µm, contenant une couche de boîtes quantiques à l'intérieur. Nous avons démontré une méthode de réglage statique du spectre de photoluminescence de ces boîtes quantiques sensibles à la contrainte, en utilisant des nano-manipulateurs pour contraindre mécaniquement les fils. De plus, grâce à la dépendance spatiale du décalage spectral, il est possible d’établir une carte de la position des boîtes quantiques.La deuxième partie de ce travail concerne la mise en mouvement de ces fils photoniques à l’aide d’un faisceau laser modulé à la fréquence de résonance mécanique. Les mécanismes physiques à l’origine de ces effets sont présentés et discutés.Dans la troisième partie, nous présentons une méthode permettant l’observation d'oscillations mécaniques de nano-fils fins (moins de 50 nm de diamètre) en utilisant un microscope électronique à balayage. Cette méthode originale offre la possibilité de contrôler de nombreux types de structures micro et nano-électromécaniques, dont la détection du mouvement n’est pas possible optiquement en raison de la limite de diffraction de la lumière. De plus, cette méthode permet également d'agir sur les propriétés mécaniques des structures via une force de contre-réaction qui devient non négligeable pour ces structures très légères. Cela ouvre la possibilité d'études fondamentales complémentaires liées au refroidissement du mouvement mécanique. / This thesis is related to the field of opto-mechanics and the use of different techniques for the measurement and manipulation of mechanical properties of nano-structures.First part of the work is dedicated to the photonic wires. These objects are GaAs structures with an inverted conical shape of length of the order of 10 µm and diameter of less than 1 µm, containing a layer of InAs quantum dots inside. Wide-range static stress-tuning of quantum dots photoluminescence spectrum was demonstrated using nano-manipulators to bend the wires. Additionally, owing to the spatial dependence of the spectral shift, this technique offers the possibility of QD positions mapping.The second part of this work concerns the optical actuation of these photonic wires. A laser beam focused on the wire and modulated at the mechanical resonance frequency can set the wire in motion. The physical mechanisms responsible for these effects are presented and discussed.In the third part is presented a method enabling the detection of mechanical oscillations of small (less than 50 nm in diameter) nanowires with the use of a Scanning Electron Microscope. This original method offers a possibility to detect the motion of many types of micro- and nano-electromechanical devices which are too small to be detected optically owing to light diffraction limit.Moreover, this method also affects the mechanical properties of the structures via a back-action force that becomes non-negligible for such small devices. It opens up the possibility for further fundamental studies related to cooling of the mechanical motion.

La thermodynamique a été développée au XIXe siècle pour décrire la physique des moteurs et autres machines thermiques macroscopiques. Depuis lors, le progrès des nanotechnologies a rendu nécessaire d'étendre ces lois, initialement pensées pour des systèmes classiques, aux systèmes obéissant à la mécanique quantique. Durant cette thèse, j'ai mis en place un formalisme pour étudier la thermodynamique stochastique des systèmes quantiques, dans lequel la mesure quantique occupe une place centrale: à l'instar du bain thermique de la thermodynamique statistique classique, la mesure est ici la source première d'aléatoire dans la dynamique. Dans un premier temps, j'ai étudié la mesure projective comme une transformation thermodynamique à part entière. J'ai montré que la mesure cause un changement incontrôlé de l'énergie du système quantique étudié, que j'ai appelé chaleur quantique, ainsi qu'une production d'entropie. Comme application de ces concepts, j'ai proposé un moteur qui extrait du travail à partir des fluctuations quantiques induites par la mesure. Ensuite, j'ai étudié les mesures généralisées, ce qui a permis de décrire des systèmes quantiques ouverts. J'ai défini les notions de travail, de chaleur, et de production d'entropie pour une réalisation unique d'une transformation thermodynamique, et retrouvé que ces quantités obéissent à des théorèmes de fluctuation. Ce formalisme m'a permis d'analyser le comportement thermodynamique de la situation canonique de l'optique quantique : un atome à deux niveaux en couplé à un laser et au vide électromagnétique. Enfin, j'ai étudié une plate-forme prometteuse pour tester la thermodynamique d'un Qubit : un système hybride optomécanique.Le formalisme développé dans cette thèse peut être d'un grand intérêt pour la communauté de thermodynamique quantique car il permet de caractériser les performances des machines thermiques quantiques et de les comparer à leurs analogues classiques. En outre, en caractérisant la mesure quantique comme un processus thermodynamique, il ouvre la voie à de nouveaux types de machines thermiques, exploitant d'une manière inédite les spécificités du monde quantique. / Thermodynamics was developed in the XIXth century to provide a physical description to engines and other macroscopic thermal machines. Since then, progress in nanotechnologies urged to extend these formalism, initially designed for classical systems, to the quantum world. During this thesis, I have built a formalism to study the stochastic thermodynamics of quantum systems, in which quantum measurement plays a central role : like the thermal reservoir of standard stochastic thermodynamics, it is the primary source of randomness in the system's dynamics. I first studied projective measurement as a thermodynamic process. I evidenced that measurement is responsible for an uncontroled variation of the system's energy that I called quantum heat, and also a production of entropy. As a proof of concept, I proposed an engine extracting work from the measurement-induced quantum fluctuations. Then, I extended this formalism to generalized measurements, which allowed to describe open quantum systems (i.e. in contact with reservoirs). I defined work, heat and entropy production for single realizations of thermodynamic protocols, and retrieved that these quantities obey fluctuation theorems. I applied this formalism to the canonical situation of quantum optics, i.e. a Qubit coupled to a laser and a the vacuum. Finally, I studied a promising platform to test Qubit's thermodynamics: a hybrid optomechanical system.The formalism developed in this thesis could be of interest for the quantum thermodynamics community as it enables to characterize quantum heat engines and compare their performances to their classical analogs. Furthermore, as it sets quantum measurement as a thermodynamic process, it pave the ways to a new kind of thermodynamic machines, exploiting the specificities of quantum realm in an unprecedented way.

We study different phenomena associated with single-photon propagation in optical cavities coupled through optical fibers. We first address the issue of storing and delaying single-photon wavepackets in an array of microcavities. This has possible applications in developing reliable and efficient quantum repeaters that will be utilized in building long distance quantum networks. Second, we investigate a Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) type of interference between two photons that are produced in two coupled atom-cavity systems. The HOM effect in this setup can test the degree of indistinguishability between photons when they are stored inside cavities. This part of the dissertation also includes the study of entanglement between atoms, cavities and atom-cavity systems induced by the photons. Finally, we focus on single-photon interactions with a tiny movable mirror in the context of quantum optomechanics. We investigate how the mechanical motion of the mirror leaves its imprints on the optical spectrum of the photon This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material. / 10000-01-01

abstract: Conductance fluctuations associated with quantum transport through quantumdot systems are currently understood to depend on the nature of the corresponding classical dynamics, i.e., integrable or chaotic. There are a couple of interesting phenomena about conductance fluctuation and quantum tunneling related to geometrical shapes of graphene systems. Firstly, in graphene quantum-dot systems, when a magnetic field is present, as the Fermi energy or the magnetic flux is varied, both regular oscillations and random fluctuations in the conductance can occur, with alternating transitions between the two. Secondly, a scheme based on geometrical rotation of rectangular devices to effectively modulate the conductance fluctuations is presented. Thirdly, when graphene is placed on a substrate of heavy metal, Rashba spin-orbit interaction of substantial strength can occur. In an open system such as a quantum dot, the interaction can induce spin polarization. Finally, a problem using graphene systems with electron-electron interactions described by the Hubbard Hamiltonian in the setting of resonant tunneling is investigated. Another interesting problem in quantum transport is the effect of disorder or random impurities since it is inevitable in real experiments. At first, for a twodimensional Dirac ring, as the disorder density is systematically increased, the persistent current decreases slowly initially and then plateaus at a finite nonzero value, indicating remarkable robustness of the persistent currents, which cannot be discovered in normal metal and semiconductor rings. In addition, in a Floquet system with a ribbon structure, the conductance can be remarkably enhanced by onsite disorder. Recent years have witnessed significant interest in nanoscale physical systems, such as semiconductor supperlattices and optomechanical systems, which can exhibit distinct collective dynamical behaviors. Firstly, a system of two optically coupled optomechanical cavities is considered and the phenomenon of synchronization transition associated with quantum entanglement transition is discovered. Another useful issue is nonlinear dynamics in semiconductor superlattices caused by its key potential application lies in generating radiation sources, amplifiers and detectors in the spectral range of terahertz. In such a system, transition to multistability, i.e., the emergence of multistability with chaos as a system parameter passes through a critical point, is found and argued to be abrupt. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2016