Cindy Regal

Mechanical resonators featuring large tensile stress have enabled a range of experiments in quantum optomechanics and precision sensing. Many sensing applications require functionalizing tensioned resonators by appending additional mass to them. However, this may dramatically change the resonator mode quality factor, and hence its sensitivity.

In our work published in Physical Review Applied, we study how mode quality factor depends on suspending a mass on a type of membrane resonator known as a trampoline.  Surprisingly, the quality factor becomes independent of the mass in the large-load regime, for any tensioned resonator, which explains previous related results and will enable new design perspectives.

In our work recently published in Physical Review Research we study Rabi oscillations in a vapor cell environment to understand their coherence in a regime where strong population dynamics are present. With these efforts we take an important step towards applying ideas in vector magnetic field measurements using Rabi oscillations to vapor cells.