Employing coupled oscillators for ultra-precise force sensing
Employing coupled oscillators for ultra-precise force sensing lead image
Measuring extremely small forces and magnetic fields at high precision is increasingly important for experimental physics as well as for applications like biomedical imaging. However, achieving such high sensitivities often requires bulky, expensive equipment with limited accessibility.
One potential alternative is a coupled oscillator, a mass-spring system with an additional coupling force. Bouche et al. designed and simulated such an oscillator and found it to be capable of detecting minute forces and magnetic gradients at levels comparable to or exceeding the sensitivities of existing technologies.
With the team’s coupled oscillator setup, the coupling force is a function of the position of the mass, which moves with an applied force and alters the oscillation frequency.
“The key advance is that our oscillator turns the measurement of a small force into a measurement of frequency,” said author Ian Bouche. “Changes in frequency are really easy to measure, which is why we can get such good sensitivity with this system.”
According to the team’s simulations, in a noiseless environment, their coupled oscillator design can achieve force measurements as sensitive as 200 zeptonewtons and can measure magnetic gradients as small as 100 attoTesla per centimeter. The oscillator design measures gradients directly at a single point and without needing bulky magnetic shielding, which could be useful for medical imaging.
“One of the ultimate use cases for this technology is imaging the heart noninvasively from outside of the chest,” said Bouche. “Usually that has been very hard to do. But with this technology, we could potentially build an array of these sensors and get an image of how the heart is pumping.”
Source: “Zeptonewton and attotesla per centimeter metrology with coupled oscillators,” by Ian Bouche, Josh Javor, Abhishek Som, David K. Campbell, and David J. Bishop, Chaos (2024). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0205643 .
This paper is part of the Topics in Nonlinear Science: Dedicated to David K. Campbell’s 80th Birthday Collection, learn more here .
