Optomechanical back-action evading measurement without parametric instability

We review a scheme for performing a back-action evading measurement of one mechanical quadrature in an optomechanical setup. The experimental application of this scheme has been limited by parametric instabilities caused in general by a slight dependence of the mechanical frequency on the electromagnetic energy in the cavity. We find that a simple modification to the optical drive can effectively eliminate the parametric instability even at high intracavity power, allowing realistic devices to achieve sub-zero-point uncertainties in the measured quadrature.

Steven K. Steinke, K. C. Schwab, Pierre Meystre · 2013