Systems and methods for acoustic sensing

A method for emitting acoustically modulated light from an optically powered resonant integrated microstructure (O-RIMS) sensor, comprising:

• receiving incident light on an outer surface of a shell of the O-RIMS sensor;
• transmitting the received incident light through the shell, through a beam, and onto a photodiode;
• in response to transmitting the incident light onto the photodiode, generating a charge in the photodiode that attracts the beam such that a motion is induced in the beam to resonate;
• changing tension of the beam in response to detecting acoustic waves;
• modulating a resonate frequency of the beam by the vibratory motion;
• and
• generating the acoustically modulated light from the modulated resonate frequency of the beam.

An optical-based sensor system, comprising:

• a light source operable to emit a beam of light;
• an optical sensor, the optical sensor comprising:
• a substrate with a surface and an internal region;
• a shell disposed above the substrate surface, the shell operable to receive incident light emitted by a light source;
• a beam affixed to an inner surface of the shell;
• and
• a photodiode on the substrate surface below the beam, the photodiode operable to generate a charge that attracts the beam such that a vibratory motion is induced in the beam to cause the beam to resonate;
• a microphone device coupled to the shell, the microphone device operable to detect acoustic waves, and operable to modulate the vibratory motion of the beam,
• wherein a portion of the received light is reflected from the beam, such that the beam modulates the reflected portion of light by the vibratory motion modulated by the microphone device;
• and
• an optical detector is operable receive the reflected portion of light from the beam, and operable to generate a signal having information corresponding to the received reflected portion of light.