Micropascal-sensitivity ultrasound sensors based on optical microcavities

Abstract: Whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavities have been widely used for high-sensitivity ultrasound detection, due to their optical and mechanical resonances enhanced sensitivity. The ultrasound sensitivity of the cavity optomechanical system is fundamentally limited by the thermal noise. In this work, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the thermal-noise-limited sensitivity of a WGM microdisk ultrasound sensor, and optimize the sensitivity by varying the radius and thickness of the microdisk, as well as using a trench structure around the disk. Using a microdisk with a radius of 300 um and thickness of 2 um, a peak sensitivity of 1.18 uPa Hz^{-1/2} is achieved at 82.6 kHz, which is to our knowledge the record sensitivity among the cavity optomechanical ultrasound sensors. Such high sensitivity can improve the detection range of air-coupled ultrasound sensing technology.