Optimizing the Signal to Noise Ratio of Microcavity Sensors

Abstract

Optical microcavities provide a sensitive platform for biological and chemical sensing applications. Previous works have focused on optimizing the device performance by increasing the quality factor of the cavity. However, this approach overlooks the impact of the quality factor on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the sensor. Here, our purpose is to show the existence of optimum parameters, both theoretically and experimentally, for achieving maximum SNR in the microcavity sensors. Although toroidal cavities are used here, this letter is easily generalizable to any cavity geometry, enabling the performance optimization of a wide range of microcavity sensors.