Nonlinear response and discrete breather excitation in driven micro-mechanical cantilever arrays

TL;DR

This paper investigates the formation of discrete breathers in driven micromechanical cantilever arrays, revealing a new instability mechanism and providing methods for their excitation, supported by experimental comparisons.

Contribution

It introduces the nonlinear response manifold (NLRM) as a systematic tool to identify parameter regimes for discrete breather existence in damped and driven lattices, highlighting a new instability mechanism.

Findings

Discrete breathers arise via a novel NLRM instability, different from modulational instability.

The paper offers multiple methods to excite and destroy DBs in experiments.

Comparison with experimental systems confirms theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We explain the origin of the generation of discrete breathers (DBs) in experiments on damped and driven micromechanical cantilever arrays (M.Sato et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 90}, 044102, 2003). Using the concept of the nonlinear response manifold (NLRM) we provide a systematic way to find the optimal parameter regime in damped and driven lattices where DBs exist. Our results show that DBs appear via a new instability of the NLRM different from the anticipated modulational instability (MI) known for conservative systems. We present several ways of exciting DBs, and compare also to experimental studies of exciting and destroying DBs in antiferromagnetic layered systems.