Optomechanical force sensor operating over wide detection range.

A detector with both broad operation range and high sensitivity is desirable in the measurement of weak periodic forces. Based on a nonlinear dynamical mechanism of locking the mechanical oscillation amplitude in optomechanical systems, we propose a force sensor that realizes the detection through the cavity field sidebands modified by an unknown external periodic force. Under the mechanical amplitude locking condition, the unknown external force happens to modify the locked oscillation amplitude linearly to its magnitude, thus achieving a linear scaling between the sideband changes read by the sensor and the magnitude of the force to be measured. This linear scaling range is found to be comparable to the applied pump drive amplitude, so the sensor can measure a wide range of force magnitude. Because the locked mechanical oscillation is rather robust against thermal perturbation, the sensor works well at room temperature. In addition to weak periodic forces, the same setup can as well detect static forces, though the detection ranges are much narrower.