Dissipative Acousto-optic Interactions in Optical Microcavities

We propose and demonstrate experimentally the strong dissipative acousto-optic interaction between a suspended vibrating microfiber and a whispering-gallery microcavity. On the one hand, the dissipative response driven by an external stimulus of acoustic waves is found to be stronger than the dispersive response by 2 orders of magnitude. On the other hand, dead points emerge with the zero dissipative response at certain parameters, promising the potentials in physical sensing such as precise measurements of magnetic field and temperature. The strong dissipative acousto-optic interaction is then explored for ultrasensitive detection of broadband acoustic waves. A noise equivalent pressure as low as 0.81 Pa at 140 kHz in air is demonstrated experimentally, insensitive to cavity Q factors and does not rely on mechanical resonances.

Automated summary

We propose and demonstrate the strong dissipative acousto-optic interaction between a suspended vibrating microfiber and a whispering-gallery microcavity. The dissipative response driven by an external stimulus of acoustic waves is found to be stronger than the dispersive response by 2 orders of magnitude. The study also shows the potential of this interaction for ultrasensitive detection of broadband acoustic waves.