Sensors based on whispering gallery resonators have minute footprints and can push achievable sensitivities and resolutions to their limits. Here, we use a microbubble resonator, with a wall thickness of 500 nm and an intrinsic Q-factor of $10^7$ in
the telecommunications C-band, to investigate aerostatic pressure sensing via stress and strain of the material. The microbubble is made using two counter-propagating CO$_2$ laser beams focused onto a microcapillary. The measured sensitivity is 19 GHz/bar at 1.55 $mu$m. We show that this can be further improved to 38 GHz/bar when tested at the 780 nm wavelength range. In this case, the resolution for pressure sensing can reach 0.17 mbar with a Q-factor higher than $5times10^7$.
Coupled-mode induced transparency is realized in a single microbubble whispering gallery mode resonator. Using aerostatic tuning, we find that the pressure induced shifting rates are different for different radial order modes. A finite element simula
tion considering both the strain and stress effects shows a GHz/bar difference and this is confirmed by experiments. A transparency spectrum is obtained when a first order mode shifts across a higher order mode through precise pressure tuning. The resulting lineshapes are fitted with the theory. This work lays a foundation for future applications in microbubble sensing.
