Dissipative structures in optomechanical cavities

Motivated by the increasing interest in the properties of multimode optomechanical devices, here we study a system in which a driven longitudinal mode of a large-area optical cavity is dispersively coupled to a deformable mechanical element. Two different models naturally appear in such scenario, for which we predict the formation of periodic patterns, localized structures (cavity solitons), and domain walls, among other complex nonlinear phenomena. Further, we propose a realistic design based on intracavity membranes where our models can be studied experimentally. Apart from its relevance to the field of nonlinear optics, the results put forward here are a necessary step towards understanding the quantum properties of optomechanical systems in the multimode regime of both the optical and the mechanical degrees of freedom.