Rare-earth-mediated opto-mechanical system in the reversed dissipation regime

Strain-mediated interaction between phonons and telecom photons is demonstrated using excited states of erbium ions embedded in a mechanical resonator. Owing to the extremely long-lived nature of rare-earth ions, the dissipation rate of the optical resonance falls below that of the mechanical one. Thus, a reversed dissipation regime is achieved in the optical frequency region. We experimentally demonstrate an opto-mechanical coupling rate 21.7 Hz, and numerically reveal that the interaction causes stimulated excitation of erbium ions. Numerical analyses further indicate the possibility of g_0 exceeding the dissipation rates of erbium and mechanical systems, thereby leading to single-photon strong coupling. This strain-mediated interaction moreover involves the spin degree of freedom, and has a potential to be extended to highly-coherent opto-electro-mechanical hybrid systems in the reversed dissipation regime.