  We experimentally study forced and self oscillations of an optomechanical
cavity which is formed between a fiber Bragg grating that serves as a static
mirror and between a freely suspended metallic mechanical resonator that serves
as a moving mirror. In the domain of small amplitude mechanical oscillations,
we find that the optomechanical coupling is manifested as changes in the
effective resonance frequency, damping rate and cubic nonlinearity of the
mechanical resonator. Moreover, self oscillations of the micromechanical mirror
are observed above a certain optical power threshold. A comparison between the
experimental results and a theoretical model that we have recently presented
yields a good agreement. The comparison also indicates that the dominant
optomechanical coupling mechanism is the heating of the metallic mirror due to
optical absorption.
