Design, fabrication and assessment of an optomechanical sensor for pressure and vibration detection using flexible glass multilayers

We introduce an easily implementable optomechanical device for pressure and vibration sensing using a multilayer structure on a flexible substrate. We present the design, fabrication and evaluation steps for a proof-of-concept device as well as optical glass components. The design steps include optical, mechanical, and optomechanical correlation simulations using the transfer matrix method, finite element analysis, geometric optics and analytical calculations. The fabrication part focuses on the deposition of multilayers on polymeric flexible substrates using the radio frequency sputtering technique. To investigate the quality of the glass coatings on polymeric substrates, atomic force microscopy and optical microscopy are also performed. Optical measurements reveal that, even after bending, there are no differences between multilayer samples deposited on the polymeric and SiO2 substrates. The performance assessment of the proof-of-concept device shows that the sensor resonance frequency is around 515 Hz and the sensor static response is capable of sensing from 50 Pa to 235 Pa. [Display omitted] •A fabrication protocol for the deposition of SiO2/TiO2 multilayers on flexible substrates using the RF-sputtering technique.•The film quality was characterized using optical microscopy, AFM, and spectrophotometer measurements.•An innovative sensing approach is demonstrated for force and vibration detection based on flexible photonic components.•A proof-of-concept optomechanical sensor has been designed, fabricated, and assessed.•Optical and mechanical modeling & simulation were also presented.