ABSTRACT

Optomechanics has witnessed its great success  in detecting the gravitational waves produced by collision and merger  of distant black holes or neutron stars, which confirms a major  prediction of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and opens  an unprecedented new window on the universe. Optomechanical systems  have shown their unique advantages in fundamental research as well as  practical applications in high-precision metrology, signal processing,  and data communication. Optomechanical devices exhibit many variations  with their sizes and mechanical masses spanning orders of magnitude.  Moving to the other end of the spectrum, I will talk about recent  progress of nano-optomechanical devices operating in the microwave  frequency regime. Fabricated on an integrated platform, they possess  pico/femtogram masses and oscillate at gigahertz frequencies. These  integrated devices hold great promise for many burgeoning areas in  science and engineering, such as single-molecule detection, laser  cooling, and quantum information processing.

BIOGRAPHY  ： Xiankai Sun received his Ph.D. degree in  Applied Physics from California Institute of Technology in 2010. From  2010 to 2014, he was a Postdoctoral Associate and then an Associate  Research Scientist in Department of Electrical Engineering at Yale  University. In 2014, he joined Department of Electronic Engineering at  The Chinese University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor. His  current research focuses on photonic and optomechanical nanodevices  for exploring new physical phenomena and developing new practical applications.

 Dr. Sun was recognized by numerous professional societies,  including the IEEE Photonics Society, the Photonics Society of  Chinese-Americans, and SPIE (the International Society for Optics and  Photonics). He was recognized as a finalist of the Blavatnik Awards  for Young Scientists in 2013 by New York Academy of Sciences for his  contribution to “experimental research of nanoscale optomechanical  systems.” He also received the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Early  Career Award in 2015. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of  Optics Express and an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports.