Computational Analysis of Self-stabilizing Photonic Levitation
This research is building on the dynamical analysis done on Optomechanical Self-Stability of Freestanding Photonic Metasurfaces here at the University of Minnesota by a team of researchers in the Laboratory for Nano-Optics and Mechanics. Models of self-stabilizing nano-patterned objects have not yet taken the damping effects of friction into account. To build a more realistic theoretical framework, the damping must be included in the equations of motion. This project has tried to incorporate the effects of damping and heating into the dynamical analysis of self-stabilizing photonic levitating objects by determining the damping parameters that expand the region of stability for these levitations. These investigations are meant to be empirical, where only the coefficients needed for asymptotic stability are analyzed.