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A compact low-frequency optomechanical triaxial inertial sensor

Daniel George, Jose D. Hernandez Rivero, Moritz Mehmet, Ramses Miranda Espino, Xiangyu Guo, Andrea Nelson, Jose Sanjuan, Felipe Guzman

physics.opticsarXiv:2608.18247

Abstract

Triaxial optomechanical accelerometers offer compact, ground-testable alternatives to electrostatic sensors for satellite geodesy, seismometry, and various other applications. We demonstrate a low-CSWaP triaxial sensor using monolithic fused-silica resonators with dual heterodyne interferometric readout. The X axis reaches a 60~pico-g/Hz readout noise floor, and the in-plane axes resolve ambient seismic ground motion in agreement with a co-located commercial seismometer from 4~mHz to 8~Hz. The Z axis exhibits higher noise under 1g loading due to gravity-induced geometric stiffening (44.45~Hz versus 11.07~Hz in a 0g-equivalent configuration), with measurements indicating in-orbit performance on par with the in-plane sensors. These results support the feasibility of triaxial optomechanical accelerometry for space missions and ground-based applications.

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