Extremely Low Loss Phonon-Trapping Cryogenic Acoustic Cavities for Future Physical Experiments

Abstract

Low loss Bulk Acoustic Wave devices are considered from the point of view of the solid state approach as phonon-confining cavities. We demonstrate effective design of such acoustic cavities with phonon-trapping techniques exhibiting extremely high quality factors for trapped longitudinally-polarized phonons of various wavelengths. Quality factors of observed modes exceed 1 billion, with a maximum $Q$-factor of 8 billion and $Q\times f$ product of $1.6\cdot 10^{18}$ at liquid helium temperatures. Such high sensitivities allow analysis of intrinsic material losses in resonant phonon systems. Various mechanisms of phonon losses are discussed and estimated.