Integrated high frequency aluminum nitride optomechanical resonators

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has been widely used in microeletromechanical resonators for its excellent electromechanical properties. Here, we demonstrate the use of AlN as an optomechanical material that simultaneously offers low optical and mechanical loss. Integrated AlN microring resonators in the shape of suspended rings exhibit high optical quality factor (Q) with loaded Q up to 125 000. Optomechanical transduction of the Brownian motion of a GHz contour mode yields a displacement sensitivity of 6.2 x 10(-18) m/Hz(1/2) in ambient air. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4707898]