Photon propagation in a one-dimensional optomechanical lattice

Abstract: We consider a one-dimensional optomechanical lattice where each site is strongly driven by a control laser to enhance the basic optomechanical interaction. We then study the propagation of photons injected by an additional probe laser beam; this is the lattice-generalization of the well-known optomechanically-induced transparency (OMIT) effect in a single optomechanical cavity. We find an interesting interplay between OMIT-type physics and geometric, Fabry-Perot type resonances. In particular, phonon-like polaritons can give rise to high-amplitude transmission resonances which are much narrower than the scale set by internal photon losses. We also find that the local photon density of states in the lattice exhibits OMIT-style interference features. It is thus far richer than would be expected by just looking at the band structure of the dissipation-free coherent system.