Emitter-Optomechanical Interaction in Ultra-High-Q hBN Nanocavities

Abstract: Integrating quantum emitters into nanocavities which simultaneously couple to the photonic and mechanical modes is critical for interfacing electron spins, photons and phonons in the cavity QED system. Here, we investigate the interaction between the charged boron vacancy $V_B^-$, ultra-high-Q ($\sim10^5$) cavity photonic modes and local phonon modes. A pronounced asymmetry is observed in the emission spectrum for cavities with Q-factor above a threshold of 10$^4$. Similar asymmetries are not observed for cavities without $V_B^-$ centers. To explain our findings, we model the system with phonon-induced light-matter coupling based on $V_B^-$ centers, and compare to the Jaynes-Cummings model for usual emitters. Our results reveal that the multipartite interplay arises during the light-matter coupling of $V_B^-$ centers, illustrating that it is phonon-induced, rather than being caused by thermal population of phonon modes. Such emitter-optomechanical interaction between different photon ($V_B^-$ emission, cavity photonic) and phonon ($V_B^-$ phonon, cavity mechanical) modes provides a novel system to interface spin defects, photons and phonons in condensed matters.