Electro-Optic Frequency Combs for Rapid Sensing of Optomechanical Sensors

Optomechanical sensors allow for high accuracy, high bandwidth sensing of a wide range of physical parameters including acceleration, force, pressure, temperature, and humidity. These sensors generally rely upon tracking changes of a cavity mode position or free spectral range in response to stimuli-induced cavity length changes. This cavity interrogation typically involves a lock to the optical cavity which results in a complicated frequency response and a limited dynamic range. Recently, we have developed an alternate approach based upon using electro-optic frequency combs to dynamically track a given optical cavity mode [1] .