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Beating thermal noise in a dynamic signal measurement by a nanofabricated cavity optomechanical sensor.

Mingkang WangDiego J Perez-MoreloGeorg RamerGeorges PavlidisJeffrey J SchwartzLiya YuB Robert IlicAndrea CentroneVladimir A Aksyuk
Published in: Science advances (2023)
Thermal fluctuations often impose both fundamental and practical measurement limits on high-performance sensors, motivating the development of techniques that bypass the limitations imposed by thermal noise outside cryogenic environments. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a measurement method that reduces the effective transducer temperature and improves the measurement precision of a dynamic impulse response signal. Thermal noise-limited, integrated cavity optomechanical atomic force microscopy probes are used in a photothermal-induced resonance measurement to demonstrate an effective temperature reduction by a factor of ≈25, i.e., from room temperature down as low as ≈12 K, without cryogens. The method improves the experimental measurement precision and throughput by >2×, approaching the theoretical limit of ≈3.5× improvement for our experimental conditions. The general applicability of this method to dynamic measurements leveraging thermal noise-limited harmonic transducers will have a broad impact across a variety of measurement platforms and scientific fields.
Keyphrases
  • room temperature
  • air pollution
  • atomic force microscopy
  • single molecule
  • drug delivery
  • high speed
  • drug induced
  • mass spectrometry
  • high glucose
  • fluorescence imaging