ONNA2019 Invited Talk

Perhaps one of the most beautiful locations for a workshop, Okinawa never fails to disappoint. The Optical Nanofibre Applications: From Quantum to Bio Technologies workshop is held every two years by OIST (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology). I had the honour of attending as a PhD student in 2015 (read about that here!) and this time, I was an invited speaker.

The conference is about research involving tapered optical fibers, microresonators, optomechanics, quantum optics & biosensing. The range of talks is fantastic and because of its location, you are able to hear work happening elsewhere (China, Japan, India etc) rather than just Europe and America.

My talk was titled: Commercialising whispering gallery mode accelerometers: from field-testing to chip-scale fabrication

Abstract:
Microresonators supporting whispering gallery mode resonances (WGMs) can exhibit an extreme sensitivity to their environment. One example is the dispersive and dissipative coupling between the resonator and an evanescent coupler which alters the WGM linewidth and frequency. By attaching the microresonator to a cantilever, we create an accelerometer with high-linearity and strong optomechanical coupling, on the order of MHz/nm. The micro-g (g=9.81 ms^(-2)) level sensitivity is suitable for monitoring blood accelerating through the body, pre-earthquake tremors, and navigation. The development of a portable WGM accelerometer prototype has now enabled us to prove functionality outdoors on a vehicle sustaining car-crash like shocks. We will describe the rapid development of this prototype and the systems engineering architecture. Due to an increased commercial appetite for optical sensors, we also present preliminary results from on-chip fabrication of a MEMS WGM accelerometer aimed at mass manufacturing.  

I also spent a weekend in Tokyo where I met up with Dr Euan Allen from Bristol University. To find out about Euan’s work in quantum photonics, go to his website!