Avalanche Sensing via Kerr frequency comb in an Optical Microcavity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel avalanche sensing method using Kerr frequency combs in optical microcavities, which amplifies weak environmental signals through abrupt state transitions rather than traditional spectral shift detection.

Contribution

It proposes a new Kerr nonlinearity-based avalanche sensing scheme that enhances sensitivity by exploiting abrupt state transitions in Kerr frequency combs, supported by theoretical and simulation validation.

Findings

The scheme can detect minute environmental perturbations with amplified signals.

Theoretical analysis confirms the mechanism of abrupt state transitions for sensing.

Simulations validate the feasibility of the proposed sensing approach.

Abstract

Sensors based on optical microcavities enhance light-matter interactions within an ultraconfined volume, enabling high-sensitivity detection across a wide range of sensing applications. In these systems, environmental perturbations modify the intrinsic resonance properties of the cavity, typically manifested as frequency shifts, linewidth broadening, or mode splitting. However, the minimum resolvable change in these spectral properties fundamentally limits the overall sensor sensitivity. Here, we propose a new avalanche sensing scheme enabled by Kerr nonlinearity. Instead of relying on the detection of frequency shifts, our approach exploits abrupt state transitions in a Kerr frequency comb to amplify weak perturbations. We provide a theoretical analysis of the underlying mechanism of this scheme and validate the concept through both coupled-mode theory (CMT) modeling and full-wave electromagnetic simulations.