Nonlinear optical mass sensor with an optomechanical microresonator

Mechanical oscillators have been widely used in mass sensing due to the direct relationship of the frequency-shift and mass-change. A conventional method for detecting the mass of deposited sample is to exploit the frequency variation of mechanical resonator in the linear optical regime. In the present letter, we demonstrate a nonlinear optical mass sensor with an optomechanical microresonator which will provide a route towards the use of cavity optomechanical system in biomedical sensors, deposition monitors, chemical reaction monitors and other nonlinear measurement fields. Based on the current experimental conditions, the nonlinear optical mass sensor proposed here can be achieved by experiments. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4757004]