Abstract
Optomechanical crystal cavities (OMC) have rich perspectives for detecting and indirectly analysing biological particles, such as proteins, bacteria and viruses. In this work we demonstrate the working principle of OMCs operating under ambient conditions as a sensor of submicrometer particles by optically monitoring the frequency shift of thermally activated mechanical modes. The resonator has been specifically designed so that the cavity region supports a particular family of low modal-volume mechanical modes, commonly known as -pinch modes-. These involve the oscillation of only a couple of adjacent cavity cells that are relatively insensitive to perturbations in other parts of the resonator. The eigenfrequency of these modes decreases as the deformation is localized closer to the centre of the resonator. Thus, by identifying specific modes that undergo a frequency shift that amply exceeds the mechanical linewidth, it is possible to infer if there are particles deposited on the resonator, how many are there and their approximate position within the cavity region. OMCs have rich perspectives for detecting and indirectly analysing biological particles, such as proteins, viruses and bacteria.
Highlights
Optomechanical crystal cavities (OMC) have rich perspectives for detecting and indirectly analysing biological particles, such as proteins, bacteria and viruses
Sensors based on nano-electro-mechanical system (NEMS) can be extremely sensitive as mass and/or force sensors based on the frequency shift of the supported mechanical modes and/or variations of their quality factors[4]
We have considered the case of including a spherical SiO2 particle positioned on one of the crossbars of the OMC, aiming to resemble the situation reported in the SEM micrograph of Fig. 1d
Summary
Optomechanical crystal cavities (OMC) have rich perspectives for detecting and indirectly analysing biological particles, such as proteins, bacteria and viruses. The modes affected to a greater extent appear in the high frequency range, given that the particle is placed almost at the boundary of the cavity region and higher frequency modes tend to localize away from the center (details in SI, Section S3).
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