Duffing Nonlinearity-Enhanced Optomechanical Mass Sensor

Abstract

Measuring the mass of small molecules is crucial across various fields, and the cavity optomechanical system is a promising candidate for mass sensing due to the direct relationship between the oscillator's resonant frequency and the mass of the sample deposited on the cavity's surface. Previous research has shown that enhancing the effective frequency of the resonator can significantly improve the performance of mass sensors. In this study, the influence of the Duffing nonlinear term is investigated on the cavity optomechanical mass sensing. These computational and numerical simulation results demonstrate that increasing the strength of the Duffing nonlinear term effectively raises the resonator's effective frequency and directly boosts the performance of the mass sensor. These include enhancing detection resolution, reducing measurement errors, and expanding the effective measurement range of mass, which may have applications in fields such as biochemical sensing and environmental monitoring.