A quantum dot coupled to a suspended-beam mechanical resonator: from the unresolved- to the resolved-sideband regime

We present experiments in which self-assembled InAs quantum dots are coupled to a thin, suspended-beam GaAs resonator. The quantum dots are driven resonantly and the resonance fluorescence is detected. The narrow quantum-dot linewidths, just a factor of three larger than the transform limit, result in a high sensitivity to the mechanical motion. We show that one quantum dot couples to eight mechanical modes spanning a frequency range from $30$ to $600~\mathrm{MHz}$: one quantum dot provides an extensive characterisation of the mechanical resonator. The coupling spans the unresolved-sideband to the resolved-sideband regimes. Finally, we present the first detection of thermally-driven phonon sidebands (at $4.2~\mathrm{K}$) in the resonance-fluoresence spectrum.