Modal Analysis Investigation of Mechanical Kerr Frequency Combs

Abstract

The aim of this work is to theoretically investigate the possibility of Kerr frequency combs in mechanical systems. In particular, whether microelectrome-chanical devices (MEMS) can be used to generate frequency combs in a manner that is analogous to the optical frequency combs generated in optical microresona-tors with Kerr-type nonlinearity. The analysis assumes a beam-like micromechani-cal structure, and starting from the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation derives the nec-essary conditions in parameter space for the comb generation. The chapter equally presents potential means for the physical implementation of mechanical Kerr combs.