Optomechanical transducers for gigahertz frequency ultrasound imaging
Abstract
Ultrasound is a noninvasive, real-time, and therefore widely used imaging modality; yet its application in cellular and sub-cellular biology is significantly limited by rapidly increasing acoustic losses in aqueous solutions with decreasing wavelength. Here we introduce a nano-optomechanical cavity transducer platform to generate and detect ultrasound in aqueous solutions with a sub-micron acoustic wavelength. We analyze the full signal pathway through a combination of finite element method modeling and the coupled differential equations that describe the dispersive optomechanical interaction. Our findings project a signal-to-noise ratio in the thousands at ~5 GHz, limited by diffraction losses and thermal-acoustic noise. This work establishes a viable path towards optomechanical ultrasound systems capable of label-free imaging at cellular and sub-cellular length scales while also providing a broader framework for optomechanical crystal device operation in aqueous environments relevant to biochemical sensing, medical diagnostics, underwater acoustic sensing, and nanoscale imaging.
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BibTeX
@misc{hackett2026optomechanical,
title = {{Optomechanical transducers for gigahertz frequency ultrasound imaging}},
author = {Lisa Hackett and Chang Ge and Alex Miera and Brandon Smith and Matt Eichenfield},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.02936},
eprint = {2607.02936},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02936},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Optomechanical transducers for gigahertz frequency ultrasound imaging
AU - Lisa Hackett
AU - Chang Ge
AU - Alex Miera
AU - Brandon Smith
AU - Matt Eichenfield
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/10
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.02936
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02936
AB - Ultrasound is a noninvasive, real-time, and therefore widely used imaging modality; yet its application in cellular and sub-cellular biology is significantly limited by rapidly increasing acoustic losses in aqueous solutions with decreasing wavelength. Here we introduce a nano-optomechanical cavity transducer platform to generate and detect ultrasound in aqueous solutions with a sub-micron acoustic wavelength. We analyze the full signal pathway through a combination of finite element method modeling and the coupled differential equations that describe the dispersive optomechanical interaction. Our findings project a signal-to-noise ratio in the thousands at ~5 GHz, limited by diffraction losses and thermal-acoustic noise. This work establishes a viable path towards optomechanical ultrasound systems capable of label-free imaging at cellular and sub-cellular length scales while also providing a broader framework for optomechanical crystal device operation in aqueous environments relevant to biochemical sensing, medical diagnostics, underwater acoustic sensing, and nanoscale imaging.
ER -