PaperarXiv:2512.24820
Circuit-free cardiovascular monitoring via skin-interfaced nanophotonics
arXiv preprint (physics.app-ph, physics.med-ph, physics.optics)
(opens in a new tab)Steffensen, Torjus et al., "Circuit-free cardiovascular monitoring via skin-interfaced nanophotonics", arXiv:2512.24820, CC BY-SA 4.0
TL;DR
Nanoscale mechano-optical surfaces enable electronics-free strain sensing, attractive for skin-interfaced devices, yet reported implementations require laser/spectrometer interrogation, negating this advantage. In uniaxial cyclic loading tests, 2% strain produces a 9% RGB-intensity modulation, stable over 1000 cycles.
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Abstract
Nanoscale mechano-optical surfaces enable electronics-free strain sensing, attractive for skin-interfaced devices, yet reported implementations require laser/spectrometer interrogation, negating this advantage. Here, we report electrically passive mechanical transduction of arterial pulsation into diffractive colour shifts read by unmodified smartphone cameras, enabled by a dual-function monolithic poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film. Using large-area double-sided nanoimprinting, we achieve a strain-sensitive nanophotonic surface on one face of the film and a bio-inspired 3D structural adhesive on the other. We measure strain-dependent optical response and reproduce it in colour-mixing optical simulations. In uniaxial cyclic loading tests, 2% strain produces a 9% RGB-intensity modulation, stable over 1000 cycles. Further, 3D structuring improves adhesive shear strength by 65% on skin over flat PDMS. Hand-held smartphone recordings in humans (n=13) resolve sub-beat hemodynamics in agreement with clinical reference (per-beat waveform =0.94 ± 0.03), exceeding established non-invasive techniques such as active reflectance photoplethysmography (PPG), imaging PPG, and piezoelectric pulse-force sensors in simultaneous recordings. Importantly, mechanical transduction at the elastomer–air interface presents an optical cardiovascular monitoring approach agnostic to dermal-melanin, a known PPG confounder. Together, these advances establish camera-readable mechanochromic elastomers as versatile materials platforms for wearable cardiovascular monitoring, point-of-care diagnostics, and electronics-free human-machine interfaces.
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APA
Steffensen, T., Stubberud, V., Hennisen, E. S., Winogrocki, E. T., Lövgren, J., Torvund, A. G. S., et al. (2026). Circuit-free cardiovascular monitoring via skin-interfaced nanophotonics. arXiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.74512
BibTeX
@misc{steffensen2026circuitfree,
title = {{Circuit-free cardiovascular monitoring via skin-interfaced nanophotonics}},
author = {Steffensen, Torjus and Stubberud, Vegar and Hennisen, Emilie S. and Winogrocki, Eryk T. and Lövgren, Julia and Torvund, Arthur G. S. and others},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {arXiv preprint},
doi = {10.1002/adma.74512},
eprint = {2512.24820},
archivePrefix = {arXiv}
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