Parametric self pulsing in a quantum opto-mechanical system

We describe an opto-mechanical system in which the coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom takes the form of a fully quantised third-order parametric interaction. Two physical realisations are proposed: a harmonically trapped atom in a standing wave and the 'membrane in the middle' model. The dominant resonant interaction corresponds to a stimulated Raman process in which two phonons are converted into a single cavity photon. We show that this system can exhibit a stable limit-cycle in which energy is periodically exchanged between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom. This is equivalently described as a parametric self-pulsing. (C)2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim