Mechanism of discrete breather excitation in driven micro-mechanical cantilever arrays

We study the pathway of generating discrete breathers in damped and driven micromechanical cantilever arrays. Using the concept of the nonlinear response manifold we provide a systematic way to find the optimal parameter regime in damped and driven lattices where discrete breathers exist. Our results show that discrete breathers appear via a new instability of the manifold, different from the anticipated modulational instability known for conservative systems. We present several ways of exciting breathers, and compare also to experimental studies in antiferromagnetic layered systems.