GaAs disks optomechanics

At the nanoscale, the optomechanical coupling increases thanks to a reduced optical/mechanical interaction volume and reduced mass of the mechanical oscillator [1,2]. In the context of nano-optomechanics, semiconductors like GaAs offer many assets. First their large refractive index allows confining optical energy in sub-wavelentgh sized high-Q cavities. Second, nanoscale mechanical oscillators are easily coupled to such on-chip cavities using top-down fabrication techniques.