  Cavity optomechanical systems enable fine manipulation of nanomechanical
degrees of freedom with light, adding operational functionality and impacting
their appeal in photonic technologies. We show that distinct mechanical modes
can be exploited with a temporally modulated laser drive to steer between
bistable steady states induced by changes of cavity radiation pressure. We
investigate the influence of thermo-optic nonlinearity on these Floquet
dynamics and find that it can inhibit or enhance the performance of the
coupling mechanism in contrast to their often performance limiting character.
Our results provide new techniques for the characterization of thermal
properties and the control of optomechanical systems in sensing and
computational applications
