Sensitive infrared detection via optomechanical spring sensing

We propose to achieve sensitive, low-noise, and fast detection of incoherent thermal photons using a novel optomechanical spring sensing principle. In this unique active sensing approach, the coherent optomechanical oscillation (OMO) greatly amplifies the long-wavelength-infrared (LWIR)-induced eigenspectrum modification, leading to a noise-equivalent power (NEP) of < 0.07pW/Hz^1/2. Meanwhile, our detection signal bandwidth is only determined by the frequency-demodulation circuit, which can reach > 100kHz. Both performance parameters are revolutionary and significantly above the current state of the art. Our success, based on mature photonic integrated circuit platforms, can easily scale up to multipixel arrays.