title: Low-power optical vibration detection by photoconductance monitoring with a laser speckle pattern.
abstract: We present a quantitative evaluation of the performance of a photoconductance-monitoring sensor array in a speckle-based vibration detection configuration. The device is found to be capable of detecting nanometer-amplitude vibrations in a single shot with incident intensities of only a few microwatts per square centimeter at kilohertz frequencies. This performance indicates that the photoconductance-monitoring array requires approximately 3 orders of magnitude lower intensity to achieve the same displacement sensitivity as competing technologies, such as photo-electromotive-force detectors.
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA. philip.heinz@dartmouth.edu
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heinz
authors.forename: Elsa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garmire