Storing Optical Information as a Mechanical Excitation in a Silica Optomechanical Resonator

We report the experimental demonstration of storing optical information as a mechanical excitation in a silica optomechanical resonator. We use writing and readout laser pulses tuned to one mechanical frequency below an optical cavity resonance to control the coupling between the mechanical displacement and the optical field at the cavity resonance. The writing pulse maps a signal pulse at the cavity resonance to a mechanical excitation. The readout pulse later converts the mechanical excitation back to an optical pulse. The storage lifetime is determined by the relatively long damping time of the mechanical excitation.