Chaotic quivering of micron-scaled on-chip resonators excited by centrifugal optical pressure.

Opto-mechanical chaotic oscillation of an on-chip resonator is excited by the radiation-pressure nonlinearity. Continuous optical input, with no external feedback or modulation, excites chaotic vibrations in very different geometries of the cavity (both tori and spheres) and shows that opto-mechanical chaotic oscillations are an intrinsic property of optical microcavities. Measured phenomena include period doubling, a spectral continuum, aperiodic oscillations, and complex trajectories. The rate of exponential divergence from a perturbed initial condition (Lyapunov exponent) is calculated. Continuous improvements in cavities mean that such chaotic oscillations can be expected in the future with many other platforms, geometries, and frequency spans.