Experimental exploration of the optomechanical attractor diagram and its dynamics

TL;DR

This paper experimentally investigates the attractor diagram of an optomechanical system, revealing stable self-induced oscillations and enabling control over large amplitude mechanical modes at room temperature.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed experimental exploration of the optomechanical attractor diagram and demonstrates control over large amplitude oscillations in a stable regime.

Findings

Achieved mechanical oscillation amplitude 500 times thermal amplitude at 300K

Identified specific conditions for stable self-induced oscillations

Explored the dynamics of optomechanical attractor states in detail

Abstract

We demonstrate experimental exploration of the attractor diagram of an optomechanical system where the optical forces compensate for the mechanical losses. In this case stable self-induced oscillations occur but only for specific mirror amplitudes and laser detunings. We demonstrate that we can amplify the mechanical mode to an amplitude 500 times larger than the thermal amplitude at 300K. The lack of unstable or chaotic motion allows us to manipulate our system into a non-trivial steady state and explore the dynamics of self-induced oscillations in great detail.