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Open Access Green as soon as Postprint is submitted to ZB.
Sensitive, small, broadband and scalable optomechanical ultrasound sensor in silicon photonics.
Nat. Photonics 15, 341–345 (2021)
Ultrasonography1 and photoacoustic2,3 (optoacoustic) tomography have recently seen great advances in hardware and algorithms. However, current high-end systems still use a matrix of piezoelectric sensor elements, and new applications require sensors with high sensitivity, broadband detection, small size and scalability to a fine-pitch matrix. This work demonstrates an ultrasound sensor in silicon photonic technology with extreme sensitivity owing to an innovative optomechanical waveguide. This waveguide has a tiny 15 nm air gap between two movable parts, which we fabricated using new CMOS-compatible processing. The 20 μm small sensor has a noise equivalent pressure below 1.3 mPa Hz−1/2 in the measured range of 3–30 MHz, dominated by acoustomechanical noise. This is two orders of magnitude better than for piezoelectric elements of an identical size4. The demonstrated sensor matrix with on-chip photonic multiplexing5–7 offers the prospect of miniaturized catheters that have sensor matrices interrogated using just a few optical fibres, unlike piezoelectric sensors that typically use an electrical connection for each element.
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Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
Keywords
Resonator; Detector
ISSN (print) / ISBN
1749-4885
e-ISSN
1749-4893
Journal
Nature Photonics
Quellenangaben
Volume: 15,
Pages: 341–345
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Publishing Place
Heidelberger Platz 3, Berlin, 14197, Germany
Non-patent literature
Publications
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging (IBMI)
Grants
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)