The Dynamics of Coupled Resonant Systems and Their Applications in Sensing

The field of coupled resonant systems is a rich research area with enumerable real-world applications, including the fields of neural computing and pattern recognition, energy harvesting, and even modeling the behavior of certain types of biological systems. This work is primarily focused on the study of the behaviors of two subsets of this field: large networks of globally coupled resonators (which, in this work, refers to passive, damped resonant elements which require external stimulus) and smaller networks of oscillators (referring to active devices capable of self-sustained motion), which are coupled through a network of light-sensitive resistive elements. In the case of the former, we begin by developing an analytical and experimental framework to examine the behaviors of this system under various conditions, such as different coupling modalities and element-level parametric mistunings. Once a proper understanding of the dynamics of these systems has been established, we go on to develop the system into a single-input, single-output, multi-analyte volatile organic compound sensor. For the study of oscillator networks, we begin by building a device which utilizes a network of Colpitts oscillators, coupled through a series of color-filtered CdSe photocells. We then establish that through the analysis of particular emergent behaviors (most notably, frequency locking within the network), this type of system may show promise as a threshold color sensor. By exploiting these behaviors, this type of system may find applications in neuromorphic computing (particularly in optical pattern recognition).