Single nanoparticle detection is demanding in fields such as early-stage diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and biochemical research. Optical whispering-gallery microcavities have high quality factors (Q factors) and small mode volumes, and mechanical oscillations can thus be excited by the strongly confined optical mode field. The mechanical mode frequency varies when the analyte attaches to the microcavity, and thus acts as an excellent sensing signal for single nanoparticle mass detection. In this work, we demonstrated the mass sensitivity dependence of mechanical modes on different cavity modes, the sensing sites, and the microcavity geometries, providing a way for optimizing the detection limit when designing a microcavity sensor.
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