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arXiv:2607.14089

Sail membranes for optomechanical accelerometry

Atkin D. Hyatt, Mitul Dey Chowdhury, Mahir Chowdhury, Mohamed J. Ahamed, Dalziel J. Wilson

quant-phcond-mat.mes-hallphysics.app-phphysics.ins-detphysics.opticsSubmitted Jul 15, 2026• Announced Jul 16, 2026
v1 · Jul 15, 2026v2 · Jul 20, 2026
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Abstract

Strained membrane resonators have emerged as a promising platform for optomechanical accelerometry; however, the desired combination of low frequency and high $Q$-mass product requires a rethinking of their dissipation dilution engineering. Applying Bayesian optimization to a Si$_3$N$_4$ membrane, we discover a class of sail-like trampoline resonators in which the frequency is decreased by an order of magnitude while preserving the $Q$-mass product. We demonstrate centimeter-scale sails with kHz frequencies, $Q\sim10^7$ and $Q\times\text{mass}\sim$ 10 g. Vertically integrating a 7 kHz device with a nanoribbon, we realize a monolithic cavity optomechanical accelerometer with a room temperature thermal noise of $40\;\text{n}g_0/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$, sufficient to resolve $μg_0/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ ambient vibration over a bandwidth of 4 kHz with a displacement imprecision of $10^{-14}\;\text{m}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$. Cryogenic arrays of sail membranes may be attractive for new physics searches and distributed quantum sensing experiments.

Comments
6 pages, 4 figures

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