Chaos Generation and Control with Molecular Optomechanical System

Abstract: Chaos is central to secure communication and physical random-number generation. Conventional cavity-optomechanical implementations, however, usually rely on weak single-photon optomechanical coupling and low-frequency mechanical modes, so access to deterministic chaotic dynamics often requires large driving power and careful suppression of thermal noise. Here we theoretically study a hybrid molecular optomechanical system formed by coupling a plasmonic nanocavity to a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microcavity. The plasmonic nanocavity provides terahertz-scale single-photon optomechanical coupling to a molecular vibration, while the WGM resonator offers a low-loss photonic channel that mitigates the short plasmon lifetime. By integrating the semiclassical equations of motion and evaluating the largest Lyapunov exponent, we map the nonlinear dynamical regimes in the parameter spaces of WGM detuning, plasmon--WGM coupling, and plasmon--vibration optomechanical coupling. We show that increasing the plasmon--vibration coupling drives the system from self-sustained oscillations to chaos through a period-doubling cascade. At moderate coupling strengths, isolated chaos windows can be opened or closed by tuning the WGM detuning and the inter-cavity coupling. These results identify molecular optomechanics as a controllable room-temperature platform for on-chip chaotic light generation and random-signal applications.