Photon‐Assisted Quantum Phase Transitions in a Cavity Optomechanical System with Two Nonlinear Mechanical Modes

Abstract Photon‐assisted quantum phase transitions (QPTs) are studied in a cavity optomechanical system that consists of one optical cavity and two nonlinear mechanical resonators and explore ground‐state properties of quantum phases. It is indicated that the cavity mode can induce effective two‐phonon tunneling interaction between two mechanical resonators. It is found that QPTs between the localization phase (LP) and delocalization phase (DP) of phonons can happen through tuning the phonon tunneling interaction. It is shown that the photon‐assisted QPT is the second order QPT. Ground‐state properties of the quantum phases are also investigated. It is indicated that the ground state of the LP is a separable squeezed state while the ground state of the DP is an entangled state. The results open a new way to engineer quantum phases and QPTs in macroscopic mechanical systems and can benefit a wide range of criticality‐enhanced quantum sensing applications.