Wide-band idler generation in a GaAs electromechanical resonator

Periodically modulating the piezoelectrically introduced strain in an electromechanical resonator can enable the fundamental (omega(0)) and the first modes (omega(1)) to be coupled. This is explicitly demonstrated with the creation of a mechanical idler at omega(1) (omega(0)) when a signal excitation is applied at omega(0) (omega(1)) and a pump excitation is applied at omega(0) + omega(1). The dynamics of the mechanical idler generation are captured by a simple phenomenological model and our experimental demonstration paves the way toward accessing the diverse functionality of nonlinear optics in an on-chip electromechanical platform.