Optically Activated Resonator Sensors

Shalini Venkatesh; Brian Culshaw

doi:10.1117/12.949773

3 January 1986 Optically Activated Resonator Sensors

Shalini Venkatesh, Brian Culshaw

Proceedings Volume 0566, Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors III; (1986) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.949773
Event: 29th Annual Technical Symposium, 1985, San Diego, United States

Abstract

A new class of environmental parameter sensors, which operate by the direct interaction between low levels of optical energy and very small coated beams of silicon dioxide, is being developed. The beams are fabricated using well-established silicon micromachining techniques and, in general, have lengths of the order of 100 microns and a cross-section of 5 microns by 1 micron. Optical power levels in the region of microwatts focussed onto the coated surface of these beams can set them into vibration at frequencies of hundreds of kiloHertz with amplitudes of a few nanometres. Such vibrations can easily be detected by optical interferometric techniques, using either a separate optical source as a probe, or even the same source used to initiate the vibrations. If such a beam is interfaced appropriately to an environmentally sensitive element, such as a diaphragm for pressure measurements, or a selectively absorbing film for chemical measurements, its mechanical resonant frequency is correspondingly altered. This frequency change can then be determined by the optical detection system, resulting in an elegant all-optical microsensor.

Citation Download Citation

Shalini Venkatesh and Brian Culshaw "Optically Activated Resonator Sensors", Proc. SPIE 0566, Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors III, (3 January 1986); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.949773

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