Dynamic stabilization of an optomechanical oscillator

Quantum optomechanics offers the potential to investigate quantum effects in macroscopic quantum systems in extremely well controlled experiments. In this paper we discuss one such situation, the dynamic stabilization of a mechanical system such as an inverted pendulum. The specific example that we study is a “membrane in the middle” mechanical oscillator coupled to a cavity field via a quadratic optomechanical interaction, with cavity damping the dominant source of dissipation. We show that the mechanical oscillator can be dynamically stabilized by a temporal modulation of the radiation pressure force. We investigate the system both in the classical and quantum regimes highlighting similarities and differences.