Ultrasound sensors play an important role in biomedical imaging, industrial nondestructive inspection, etc. Traditional ultrasound sensors that use piezoelectric transducers face limitations in sensitivity and spatial resolution when miniaturized, with typical sizes at the millimeter to centimeter scale. To overcome these challenges, optical ultrasound sensors have emerged as a promising alternative, offering both high sensitivity and spatial resolution. In particular, ultrasound sensors utilizing high-quality factor (Q) optical microcavities have achieved unprecedented performance in terms of sensitivity and bandwidth, while also enabling mass production on silicon chips. In this review, we focus on recent advances in ultrasound sensing applications using three types of optical microcavities: Fabry-Perot cavities, π-phase-shifted Bragg gratings, and whispering gallery mode microcavities. We provide an overview of the ultrasound sensing mechanisms employed by these microcavities and discuss the key parameters for optimizing ultrasound sensors. Furthermore, we survey recent advances in ultrasound sensing using these microcavity-based approaches, highlighting their applications in diverse detection scenarios, such as photoacoustic imaging, ranging, and particle detection. The goal of this review is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the latest advances in ultrasound sensing with optical microcavities and their potential for future development in high-performance ultrasound imaging and sensing technologies.

超声波传感器在生物医学成像、工业无损检测等领域发挥着重要作用。使用压电换能器的传统超声波传感器在小型化时面临灵敏度和空间分辨率的限制，典型尺寸为毫米到厘米级。为了克服这些挑战，光学超声传感器已成为一种有前途的替代方案，具有高灵敏度和空间分辨率。特别是，利用高品质因数 ( Q ) 光学微腔的超声波传感器在灵敏度和带宽方面实现了前所未有的性能，同时还能够在硅芯片上进行大规模生产。在这篇综述中，我们重点关注使用三种类型的光学微腔的超声波传感应用的最新进展：法布里-珀罗腔、π相移布拉格光栅和回音壁模式微腔。我们概述了这些微腔所采用的超声波传感机制，并讨论了优化超声波传感器的关键参数。此外，我们还调查了使用这些基于微腔的方法在超声传感方面的最新进展，重点介绍了它们在不同检测场景中的应用，例如光声成像、测距和粒子检测。本次综述的目的是全面了解光学微腔超声传感的最新进展及其在高性能超声成像和传感技术未来发展的潜力。