FPU2026 - Criticality and information processing in nonlinear optomechanical systems

The PhD project will explore how nonlinear dynamics and critical phenomena in nanophotonic systems can be exploited for information processing. The research will focus on silicon optomechanical cavities operated close to dynamical bifurcations, where optical, mechanical and thermal fluctuations interact to generate complex nonlinear dynamics. The candidate will combine experimental nanophotonics, nonlinear dynamics, numerical modelling and data analysis to characterize transitions between stochastic, coherent and chaotic regimes and determine how these regimes affect memory, dimensionality and computational performance. The work will include physical reservoir computing and explore how fabrication disorder and nonlinear dynamics can generate device-specific, unclonable information-processing responses. The project will be carried out at ICMM-CSIC within an international research environment and in collaboration with European groups working on silicon photonics, NEMS, complex photonics and physical unclonable functions.