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.