Optomechanical crystals are periodic structures that are constructed of optical, elastic material. Optomechanical crystals have the interesting property of possessing coupling between the optical and mechanical regimes, which can allow storage of light as a mechanical vibratory mode (Fiore, et al., 2011). Optomechanical crystals harness the high speed and sensitivity of optical systems as well as the tunability and long-term memory of mechanical systems. By exploiting coupling between photons and phonons, optomechanical crystals could provide breakthroughs in quantum information processing (Stannigel, et al., 2012), high-speed chaotic communications (Navarro-Urrios, et al., 2017), and sensing technology (Krause, et al., 2012). However, recent work in this field has focused on optical nonlinearities or mechanical defects to exploit localized dynamics. Anharmonic crystals possess other types of nonlinear dynamical responses, such as intrinsic localized modes (Sievers, Takeno, 1988). Intrinsic localized modes can be designed to be robust or susceptible to noise (Perkins, et al., 2016) and to be stable or chaotic (Perkins, 2019). Because of these properties, mechanical intrinsic localized modes could be the key to unlocking breakthroughs in optomechanical research. The research will involve developing methods to incorporate engineered nonlinearity into optomechanical crystals, in order to exploit coupling between photons and intrinsic localized modes.

Navarro-Urrios, Daniel, Néstor E. Capuj, Martín F. Colombano, P. David García, Marianna Sledzinska, Francesc Alzina, Amadeu Griol, Alejandro Martínez, and Clivia M. Sotomayor-Torres. "Nonlinear dynamics and chaos in an optomechanical beam." Nature communications 8 (2017): 14965.

Perkins, Edmon. "Restricted normal mode analysis and chaotic response of p-mode intrinsic localized mode." Nonlinear Dynamics (2019): 1-12.

Perkins, Edmon, Masayuki Kimura, Takashi Hikihara, and Balakumar Balachandran. "Effects of noise on symmetric intrinsic localized modes." Nonlinear Dynamics 85, no. 1 (2016): 333-341.

key words

Photon-phonon coupling; optomechanical crystals; nonlinear dynamics; chaotic communications; quantum information processing;

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