Coupling the thermal acoustic modes of a bubble to an optomechanical sensor

We report experimental observations of the volume acoustic modes of air bubbles in water, including both the fundamental Minnaert breathing mode and a family of higher-order modes extending into the megahertz frequency range. Bubbles were placed on or near optomechanical sensors having a noise floor substantially determined by ambient medium fluctuations, and which are thus able to detect thermal motions of proximate objects. Bubble motions could be coupled to the sensor through both air (i.e., with the sensor inside the bubble) and water, verifying that sound is radiated by the high-order modes. We also present evidence for elastic-Purcell-effect modifications of the sensor’s vibrational spectrum when encapsulated by a bubble, in the form of cavity-modified linewidths and line shifts.