Optical manipulation of intrinsic localized vibrational energy in cantilever arrays

Abstract

Optically-induced real-time impurity modes are used to shepherd intrinsic\nlocalized vibrational modes (discrete breathers) along micromechanical arrays\nvia either attractive or replulsive interactions. Adding an electrode to the\ncantilever array provides control of the sign of lattice anharmonicity, hence\nallowing both hard and soft nonlinearities to be studied. A number of dynamical\neffects are demonstrated and explained, including the optical tweezing of\nlocalized vibrational energy in a nonlinear lattice.\n