Circulating cavity photons
Movable mirror (mechanical mode)
Mirror displacement x(t) — envelope shrinks under cooling, grows under heating
2D companion to the 3D cavity-optomechanics simulator: the same laser-driven Fabry-Pérot cavity with a spring-mounted movable mirror, read off a flat schematic side-view instead of a 3D perspective scene. Because the intracavity field takes a finite time (set by the cavity linewidth κ) to respond to the mirror's motion, the radiation-pressure force lags the mirror's displacement — and that time lag either damps or amplifies the mirror's mechanical vibration depending on whether the laser is red- or blue-detuned from the cavity resonance. A scrolling x(t) strip chart makes this dynamical-backaction effect directly visible: the vibration envelope rings down under red detuning (laser cooling, the mechanism used to cool micro- and nano-mechanical oscillators toward their quantum ground state) and grows under blue detuning (optomechanical amplification / self-oscillation). Adjust the detuning, drive power and coupling strength and give the mirror a kick to watch it happen in real time.