Spontaneous symmetry-breaking in optomechanical cavity

Abstract

A theoretical consideration of the so-called "membrane-in-the-middle" optomechanical cavity revealed that it undergoes a spontaneous symmetry breaking as a function of the transparency of the membrane. Such typical features of this phenomenon as a square-root development of the order parameter and divergency of the critical susceptibility were identified. In the contract to classical spontaneous-symmetry-breaking systems of ferromagnets and ferroelectrics, in the considered system, this divergency remains, due to interference effects, an "internal" property of the system, which does not reveal itself in any divergency of its observables. A spontaneous symmetry breaking in an optomechanical cavity might pave a new way to enhanced optomechanical interactions.