Fig. 5.

Snap-through of a strip subject to normal illumination. (A and B) Snapshots of an initially flat strip clamped in a buckled state and subjected to illumination with ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{max}=10$ and $l_f=0.99$ for two different offsets, (A) $\mu =l_f/2$ and (B) $\mu =0.45$. The red arrows indicate the location of the center of the laser beam. Predictions of the model (cyan) are superimposed onto the experimental observations without any adjustable parameter. Note the two distinct snap-through modes: symmetric with the creation of a flat-top when the light beam is centered, and displacing the peak position when the light beam is not centered. (C) Phase portrait in the illumination vs. offset space, showing the absence or presence of snap-through, for $l_f=0.95$. The background colors and the crosses are the theoretical and experimental results, respectively. (D) Time for snap-through as a function of illumination for $l_f=0.95$ and $\mu =l_f/2$, as predicted by the model.