Fiber-integrated microcavities for efficient generation of coherent acoustic phonons

Coherent phonon generation by optical pump-probe experiments has enabled the study of acoustic properties at the nanoscale in planar heterostructures, plasmonic resonators, micropillars, and nanowires. Focalizing both the pump and the probe on the same spot of the sample is a critical part of pump-probe experiments. This is particularly relevant in the case of small objects. The main practical challenges for the actual implementation of this technique are stability of the spatiotemporal overlap, reproducibility of the focalization, and optical mode matching conditions. In this work, we solve these three challenges for the case of planar and micropillar optophononic cavities. We integrate the studied samples to single mode fibers lifting the need for focusing optics to excite and detect coherent acoustic phonons. The resulting reflectivity contrast of at least 66% achieved in our samples allows us to observe stable coherent phonon signals over at least a full day and signals at an extremely low excitation power of 1 μW. The monolithic sample structure is transportable and could provide a means to perform reproducible plug-and-play experiments.