Lever-enabled milli-Newton mechanical force detection via a microbottle resonator

Abstract

We demonstrate a milli-Newton mechanical force sensor based on a whispering gallery mode microbottle resonator (MBR). A lever model is established by coupling the MBR with a tapered fiber, whose ratio of load arm to effort arm (RLE) is flexibly adjusted to enlarge the detection range. The mechanical force is induced by attaching a capillary on the MBR stem and applying the downward displacement, which deforms the MBR’s radius and thus shifts the resonance wavelength. The dependence of the capillary displacement on the mechanical force is theoretically deduced and verified. Experimentally, the sensors with different RLEs are built, and the maximum sensitivity of −10.48 pm/mN with a resolution of 40 µN is obtained. The achieved detection range is 0–4 mN, which depends on the capillary displacement and RLE of the lever. With the merits of easy fabrication and flexible structure, the proposed sensor shows great potential in biomedical and structural health monitoring.