Full dynamics of two-membrane cavity optomechanics

In a two-membrane cavity optomechanical setup, two semitransparent membranes placed within an optical Fabry-Pérot cavity lead to a nontrivial dependence of the frequency of a mode of the optical cavity on the membranes’ positions, which is due to interference. However, the system dynamics is typically described by a radiation-pressure-force treatment in which the frequency shift is expanded, stopping at first order in the membrane displacements. In this paper, we study the full dynamics of the system obtained by considering the exact nonlinear dependence of the optomechanical interaction between two membranes’ vibrational modes and the driven cavity mode. We then compare this dynamics with the standard treatment based on the Hamiltonian linear interaction, and we find the conditions under which the two dynamics may significantly depart from each other. In particular, we see that a parameter regime exists in which the customary first-order treatment provides distinct and incorrect predictions for the synchronization of two self-sustained mechanical limit cycles and for Gaussian entanglement of the two membranes in the case of two-tone driving.