Microbubble resonators combined with a digital optical frequency comb for high-precision air-coupled ultrasound detectors

Abstract

Fast and sensitive air-coupled ultrasound detection is essential for many applications such as radar, ultrasound imaging, and defect detection. Here we present a novel approach based on a digital optical frequency comb (DOFC) technique combined with high- <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m1"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Q</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> optical microbubble resonators (MBRs). DOFC enables precise spectroscopy on resonators that can trace the ultrasound pressure with its resonant frequency shift with femtometer resolution and sub-microsecond response time. The noise equivalent pressure of air-coupled ultrasound as low as <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m2"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>4.4</mml:mn> <mml:mtext> </mml:mtext> <mml:mi>mPa</mml:mi> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:mo>√</mml:mo> <mml:mi>Hz</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> is achieved by combining a high- <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m3"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>Q</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="m4"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo form="prefix">∼</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ) MBR with the DOFC method. Moreover, it can observe multi-resonance peaks from multiple MBRs to directly monitor the precise spatial location of the ultrasonic source. This approach has a potential to be applied in 3D air-coupled photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging.