Speaker
Description
Nonlinearities are a fundamental feature of many physical systems and can serve as a powerful resource when properly controlled. In optomechanics, where light interacts with mechanical motion, they provide new opportunities for exploring regimes beyond those described by linear dynamics. In this talk, we present how engineered nonlinearities can be harnessed in cavity optomechanical systems to access new behavior at low excitation levels and to modify the interaction between light and mechanical motion. We demonstrate that nonlinearity enables the observation of dynamical effects in the few-excitation regime and can influence the efficiency of optomechanical cooling. In particular, we show that nonlinear cavities can enhance cooling performance compared to their linear counterparts. These results illustrate how nonlinearity can be used to extend the range of accessible phenomena in optomechanical systems, with relevance for quantum science and precision measurements.