| AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| MEMS and NEMS Group | Monday Sessions |
| Session MN-MoM |
| Session: | MEMS, BioMEMS, and MEMS for Energy: Processes, Materials, and Devices I |
| Presenter: | Marc Sansa, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France |
| Authors: | M. Sansa, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France M. Defoort, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France M. Hermouet, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France L. Banniard, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France A. Fafin, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France M. Gely, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France I. Favero, Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, France G. Jourdan, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France A. Brenac, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Grenoble INP, INAC-Spintec, France S. Hentz, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, France |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Nanomechanical resonators have shown record performance in mass or force sensing thanks to their miniature sizes. Pioneering works have shown single protein mass spectrometry (MS) could be performed with nanoresonators (1). It was recently demonstrated that they are particularly well suited for the analysis of high-mass species like virus capsids (~100MDa), out of reach for any commercial instrument as of today (2). In parallel, cavity-based nano-optomechanical resonators have shown exceptional displacement sensitivities (3), opening new avenues to improve the limit of detection of nanomechanical sensors (4). Here we report the first proof of concept of mass spectrometry with a nano-optomechanical resonator, made possible by a novel resonator geometry, the combination of optomechanics with electrical actuation and advances in fabrication and assembly of the sensor.
Taking advantage of the optomechanical detection, we use an ultra-thin planar sensor geometry. It displays several advantages compared to commonly used 1D-like resonators: the capture area is increased threefold while maintaining a similar mass resolution. Additionally, this planar membrane resonator is designed to be insensitive to particle position, shape or stiffness, avoiding the need for multi-mode operation (5). The resonators are fabricated using the first Very Large Scale Integration process for optomechanics, which allows the combination of standard photonic components (grating couplers, waveguides, optical cavities), electrical actuation of the resonator and a protection layer covering the optical and electrical features.
Our process and design also allow optical packaging in order for our sensor to be portable and usable in any vacuum system with optical and electrical input/outputs, such as a sputtering system containing a standard Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass spectrometer (6). This set-up allows the generation of particles of controllable mass, and the comparison of optomechanical and TOF mass spectrometry in situ. We show that the measured mass is equivalent with both techniques, while optomechanical detection is more performant at higher masses (>5 MDa), where TOF becomes less efficient. This work represents the first step towards the optomechanical addressing of large sensor arrays, which combine the advantages of nanomechanical sensors with reduced analysis times comparable to those of conventional MS.
1. M.S. Hanay et al. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2012)
2. S. Dominguez-Medinaet al. Science (2018)
3. A. Schliesser et al. New J. Phys. (2008)
4. A. Venkatasubramanian et al. Nano Lett. (2016)
5. E. Gil-Santos et al. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2010)
6. E. Sage et al. Nature Communications (2018)