{
  "abstract": "Tracking the resonance frequency of a mechanical oscillator is the basis of atomic force microscopy, mass sensing and thermometry. Nanomechanical thermal detectors exploit this principle to sense absorbed radiation, most effectively with tensile-stressed resonators, whose tension converts thermal expansion into a large frequency shift and dilutes dissipation. Approaching their fundamental sensitivity limit, however, has required free-space or fibre-coupled interferometers, hindering compact deployment and scaling to arrays. Here we remove this bottleneck by monolithically integrating a high-Q nanomechanical resonator with a silicon nitride photonic integrated circuit. A tensile-stressed silicon nitride trampoline with an impedance-matched platinum absorber is dispersively coupled to a photonic integrated microresonator beneath it. At room temperature and with microwatt-level optical power, the detector reaches a noise-equivalent power of 3.4 pW/$\\sqrt{\\rm Hz}$ for broadband thermal radiation (3-12 $μ$m), referred to incident power. Referred to absorbed power, this is within a factor of 1.5 of its fundamental thermal fluctuation limit. Using our detector in a state-of-the-art commercial Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer, we resolve the vibrational fingerprint of a polymer film across 2-20 $μ$m and reach the precision of the built-in pyroelectric detector with about an order of magnitude lower incident power. This architecture opens a route to multiplexed optomechanical focal-plane arrays.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.37771",
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Guillermo Arregui"
    },
    {
      "name": "Amirali Arabmoheghi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alessio Zicoschi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xinru Ji"
    },
    {
      "name": "Scott E. Kenning"
    },
    {
      "name": "Marco Golino"
    },
    {
      "name": "Shivaprasad U. Hulyal"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yi Xia"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sunil A. Bhave"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tobias J. Kippenberg"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9tpc5zmh853f9.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.37771",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9tpc5zmh853f9",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.37771",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.app-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.optics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.37771",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-27",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9tpc5zmh853f9.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:36:23Z",
      "native_id": "2610.37771",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.37771"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.app-ph",
      "subfield": "applied-instrumentation"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.optics",
      "subfield": "optics-photonics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A photonic-integrated optomechanical mid-infrared detector",
  "title_text": "A photonic-integrated optomechanical mid-infrared detector",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:44Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9tpc5zmh853f9",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}