In order to design a new acceleration sensor, resonant optical tunneling effect(ROTE) structure was applied to design the optical sensor. The key factors, such as frequency response and sensitivity performance of the sensor, were simulated and analyzed by using COMSOL software. The experimental platform was built to verify the principle of resonant optical tunneling effect. The results show that the sensitivity of ROTE acceleration sensor is 6.7dB/g when acceleration is 500m/s2 in the range of 100 Hz to 3000Hz. The sensor is deft, simple and has high sensitivity. The study provides a new idea and method for optical sensor and has broad application prospects.