We present a description of a strongly driven multimode optomechanical system that shows the emergence of cooperative effects usually known from systems of atom-light interaction. Our calculations show that under application of a coherent pump field the system's response can be switched from a superradiant regime to a collective gain regime by varying the frequency detuning of the pump. In the superradiant regime, enhanced optical cooling of a single vibrational mode is possible, whereas the collective gain regime would potentially enable one to achieve almost thresholdless phonon laser action. The threshold pumping power scales as $1/N$.

• Received 22 September 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.90.053808