Superconducting cavity electromechanics on a silicon-on-insulator platform

Fabrication processes involving anhydrous hydrofluoric vapor etching are developed to create high-Q aluminum superconducting microwave resonators on free-standing silicon membranes formed from a silicon-on-insulator wafer. Using this fabrication process, a high-impedance 8.9-GHz coil resonator is coupled capacitively with a large participation ratio to a 9.7-MHz micromechanical resonator. Two-tone microwave spectroscopy and radiation pressure backaction are used to characterize the coupled system in a dilution refrigerator down to temperatures of Tf=11  mK, yielding a measured electromechanical vacuum coupling rate of g0/2π=24.6  Hz and a mechanical resonator Q factor of Qm=1.7×107. Microwave backaction cooling of the mechanical resonator is also studied, with a minimum phonon occupancy of nm≈16 phonons being realized at an elevated fridge temperature of Tf=211  mK.