The objective of this award is to harness the light radiation pressure to excite extremely high frequency mechanical vibrations in a microfluidic optomechanical resonator and then apply the microfluidic optomechanical resonator in analyzing biomolecular interactions where both optical and mechanical detection methods will be employed. Different from the state-of-the-art in vibrating microfluidic devices, the microfluidic optomechanical resonator is electrode-less. Both excitation and interrogation of the vibrations are accomplished optically, which breaks the electrical-impedance limit typically seen in current acoustical actuation techniques and enables the microfluidic optomechanical resonator to operate at the acoustical X band (10 GHz). In the project, the microfluidic optomechanical resonator will be analyzed mechanically and optically. Then the microfluidic optomechanical resonator will be fabricated and characterized. Finally, the microfluidic optomechanical resonator will be used to study protein-small molecule interaction and protein-protein interaction where both the mass and the conformational change of biomolecules can be detected.
If successful, the results will lead to a fundamental understanding of optomechanics in liquid and a new type of biochemical sensor based on cavity optomechanics. They pave the way to simultaneous acoustical and optical detection of analytes in liquid, which allows for more detailed analysis of biomolecular interactions. Meanwhile, they open a door to many other applications in non-solid phases of matter such as high-resolution ultrasound imaging and optomechanical excitation of superfluids.
