Whispering gallery mode profiles in a coated microsphere

The properties of whispering gallery modes (WGM) of a microsphere can be tailored by coating the resonator with a thin film. If the coating has a higher refractive index than the microsphere core, the resulting structure will have a configuration which has similarities both with a classical WGM resonator and with a planar waveguide. By choosing the film thickness and refractive index we can tailor the degree of confinement of the WGMs inside the sphere core, coating and surrounding medium, which will in turn influence the WGMs contact with its surroundings. We present a study of the effect of the coating on the WGM mode profiles in particular of a silicon coating on a silica sphere.     

Near-field Moiré effect mediated by surface plasmon polariton excitation

We have demonstrated a surface plasmon polariton mediated optical Moiré effect by inserting a silver slab between two subwavelength gratings. Enhancement of the evanescent fields by the surface plasmon excitations on the silver slab leads to a remarkable contrast improvement in the Moiré fringes from two subwavelength gratings. Numerical calculations, which agree very well with the experimental observation of evanescent-wave Moiré fringes, elucidate the crucial role of the surface plasmon polaritons. The near-field Moiré effect has potential applications to extend the existing Moiré techniques to subwavelength characterization of nanostructures.     

Fiber ring laser for intracavity sensing using a whispering-gallery-mode resonator

Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonators are used as optical transducers for sensing applications. The typical detection scheme is based on tracking the WGM resonance shift, by scanning with a tunable laser, when a change of the refractive index in the region probed by the WGM takes place. We propose a sensing approach based instead on monitoring the position of the laser line of a fiber ring laser having a WGM microsphere in its loop. We have demonstrated that the induced shift is the same for the ring laser line and for the microsphere resonance. The proposed method requires simpler, cheaper equipment and may also improve the sensor resolution because the ring laser line is much narrower than the microsphere WGM resonance.     

Linearly polarised three-colour lasing emission from an evanescent wave pumped and gain coupled fibre laser

A novel Whispering--Gallery--Mode (WGM) fibre laser, emitting linearly polarised three-colour light, is demonstrated by pumping and gain coupling with evanescent waves. The pump light is longitudinally coupled into a bare optical fibre immersed in a dye solution of lower refractive index. The dye molecules around the bare fibre are excited by the evanescent waves of pump light when they propagate along the fibre in a total internal reflection. When the pump beam within the fibre is a meridian beam, the WGM lasing emission from the fibre laser is a linearly polarised transverse electric wave, while it is a mixed wave of the linearly polarised transverse electric and magnetic waves if the pump beam is a skew beam within the fibre. Because the excited molecules are located within the evanescent field of WGM, a good spatial overlap between the dye gain and the evanescent field leads to a high pumping efficiency and a longer gain distance along the fibre. Once the bare fibre is inserted into three glass capillaries filled with Rhodamine 6G, 610 and 640 dye solutions, respectively, WGM laser oscillations at the wavelengths of 567--575, 605--614 and 656--666~nm occur simultaneously, and a linearly polarised three-colour lasing emission is achieved in a single optical fibre.     

Resonating properties of passive spherical optical microcavities

As an optically pumped device, the lasing characteristics of a spherical microcavity laser depend on the optical pumping processes. These characteristics can be described in term of the Q factor and the optical field distribution in a microsphere. We derived analytical expressions and carried out numerical calculation for Q factor and optical field. The Q factor is found to be oscillatory functions of the radius of a microsphere and the pumping wavelength, and the pumping efficiency for a resonating microsphere is much higher than that for an anti-resonating microsphere. Using tunable lasers as pumping sources is suggested in order to achieve a higher pumping efficiency. Numerical calculation on optical field distribution in spherical microcavities shows that a well focused Gaussian beam is a suitable incident wave for cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments in which strong confinement of optical field in the center of a microsphere is requested, but higher order spherical wave should be used instead for exciting whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microsphere lasers, for the purpose of favoring optical energy transferring to WGM in optical microspheres.     

Whispering-gallery mode lasing from polymer microsphere for humidity sensing

Microlasers based on high quality(Q) whispering-gallery mode(WGM) resonance are promising low threshold laser sources for bio-sensing and imaging applications. In this Letter, dye-doped polymer microspheres were fabricated by a controlling emulsion solvent evaporation method. WGM lasing with low threshold and high Q factors was realized in an individual microsphere under femtosecond laser pumping. The slight change of environmental relative humidity(RH) can be monitored by measuring the shift of the lasing modes at the exposure of water molecules, which demonstrates the sensitivity is as high as 6 pm/RH%. The results would offer an insight into employing microlasers as sensors.     

Dielectric waveguide model for guided surface polaritons

Although surface polariton modes supported by finite-width interfaces can guide electromagnetic energy in three dimensions, we demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge that such modes can be modeled by the solutions of two-dimensional dielectric slab waveguides. An approximate model is derived by a ray-optics interpretation that is consistent with previous investigations of the Fresnel relations for surface polariton reflection. This model is compared with modal solutions for metal stripe waveguides obtained by full vectorial magnetic-field finite-difference methods. The field-symmetric modes of such waveguides are shown to be in agreement with the normalized dispersion relationship for analogous TE modes of dielectric slab waveguides. Lateral confinement is investigated by comparison of power-density profiles, and implications for the diffraction limit of guided polariton modes are discussed.     

轴向隐失波激励的回音壁模式光纤激光器

采用轴向隐失波激励增益的方式,使激光增益区域局限在光纤回音壁模式的模场区域内,显著地降低了回音壁模式光纤激光辐射的抽运阈值,由此形成一种低阈值的回音壁模式光纤激光器.在微焦耳量级的低抽运能量条件下,用回音壁模式光纤激光器研究了激光染料的浓度效应.实验结果表明,随着激光染料浓度的增加,回音壁模式激光辐射的波长向长波方向移动,激光波长范围变宽.用回音壁模式染料激光的四能级模型得到激光上能级和所有能级上的分子数比值γ(λ)曲线后,很好地解释了实验结果.低抽运阈值的回音壁模式光纤激光器,为研究液体激光现象提供了极为便利的手段.     

Tm~(3+)掺杂Ge-Ga-S玻璃微球-石英光纤锥耦合系统的荧光回廊模特性

以熔融淬冷法自制了Tm~(3+)掺杂Ge-Ga-S硫系玻璃,并以此为基质材料,用漂浮粉料熔融法制备了直径分布为50—200μm的高品质因数(Q10~4)的有源硫系玻璃微球谐振腔.在显微镜下优选出一颗表面质量好、球形度较高、直径为72.84μm的微球,与氢氧焰扫描拉锥法制备的一根腰锥直径为1.93μm的石英光纤锥进行近场耦合.根据基质材料的吸收光谱特性,选用808 nm的半导体激光器作为抽运源.实验测得光纤锥倏逝波场激发出了掺Tm~(3+)硫系玻璃微球在1460 nm附近的荧光回廊模式,其典型共振峰间隔为4.39 nm.实验测得的荧光回廊模式与米氏散射理论计算结果符合度较高(最大误差仅为0.047%),验证了本文提出的掺Tm~(3+)硫系微球制备及耦合工艺的可行性.     

相位匹配下锥形光纤激发出的回廊模谐振

分别计算不同直径下锥形光纤基模和玻璃微球谐振腔内最低阶径向回廊模的传播常量,利用相位匹配条件,作出了锥形光纤与石英玻璃微球腔的直径对应关系曲线.在此基础上,选择锥腰直径2.8 μm左右的低损耗锥形光纤与直径143.1 μm球形度很好的玻璃微球腔进行近场耦合以激发球内的最低阶径向回廊模谐振,在锥形光纤的两端进行通光测试,在输出端获得了等间距分布的窄线宽滤波谱线,其吸收峰位置与利用Mie理论计算的球内最低阶径向回廊模谐振峰位置相一致.     

Depth profiling the whispering gallery modes in TiO2:Eu3+ microspheres using cathode luminescence

The depth-resolved luminescence of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) was studied in TiO2:Eu3+ microsphere using cathode luminescence. As the penetration depth of the electron beam into the microsphere was increased through the control of the accelerating voltage, periodic structures appeared superimposed over the intrinsic transition lines of Eu3+, which were attributable to the cavity enhancement effect of the spontaneous emission by WGM resonance. The calculated radial intensity distribution of the WGM and the penetration depth explained the observed dependence of the WGM structure's visibility on the accelerating voltage.     

Polarization-modified Fano line shape spectrum with a single whispering gallery mode

Using the HE11Xand HE11Ymodes in a tapered fiber(TF)and the whispering gallery mode(WGM)in a microsphere resonator,Fano line-shape spectra were theoretically described and experimentally observed in this study.The line shapes of the spectra can be tuned to form a Lorentz notch,various Fano line shapes,and the Lorentz peak by controlling the polarizations at the input and output ports of the TF.The relative position or the size of the waveguide and WGM resonator do not need to be accurately controlled to produce these effects.The proposed configuration is suitable for mass production and will improve the performance of the devices in which it is applied.     

消逝波激励的双波段光纤回音壁模式激光辐射

将石英光纤浸入低折射率的染料溶液中后构成圆柱形微腔.采用轴向光抽运消逝波激励激光增益的方式,使增益区域局限在圆柱形微腔回音壁模式的模场区域内,由此显著地提高了抽运效率,增加了沿光纤轴向的增益长度.在一根石英光纤的轴向分段填入浓度同为2×10^-3mol/L的罗丹明6G和罗丹明B乙醇溶液,在567—576nm 和592—600nm的两个波长范围内同时获得回音壁模式的激光辐射;分段填入浓度为8×10^-4和8×10^-3mol/L的罗丹明B乙醇溶液, 关键词： 消逝波激励 圆柱形微腔 回音壁模式 双波段激光辐射     

回音壁微腔光力系统的相干控制与完全相干透射

本文研究了两侧同时输入的回音壁模谐振双微腔光力系统中电磁诱导透明的相干调控.通过改变双微腔两侧探测场的强度比值及相位差,可以有效控制电磁诱导透明窗口的宽度和深度,对探测场的吸收和色散等性质实施显著的影响,并且能够在特殊频率处产生关于探测场的完全相干透射现象.     

Generating mechanism of the energy-stream loops for the evanescent waves in a left-handed material slab

The generating mechanism of the energy-stream loops (ESLs) for the evanescent waves around the interfaces of a left-handed material (LHM) slab has been investigated with a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The simulations have shown that these ESLs originate from standing waves, attributed to the intervention of counter-propagating evanescent waves. Large numbers of ESLs can appear because of the numerous values of wave vectors k_y. The larger ESLs die out more quickly than the smaller ones in time after the source is switched off, the ESLs shrink continuously with increasing delay, and the oscillated distributions of the evanescent waves between the surfaces can also be validated. It is greatly helpful for the further comprehension on energy fluxes of evanescent waves in the LHM slab.     

Using the atomic force microscope as a nanomechanical partner to support evanescent field imaging

Quantum Dot (QD)/microsphere structures supporting Whispering Gallery Modes (WGMs) are attached to Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilevers for characterization of the evanescent field around the QD/microsphere and utilization of the evanescent field for sensing at the apical surface of live cells. Following laser excitation, QD emission couples to WGMs that circumnavigate the microsphere via total internal reflection at the internal surfaces of the microsphere. The resulting evanescent field is characterized utilizing the high spatial control of an AFM in approaching a dye monolayer on a test surface. The measured evanescent field extends approximately 50 nm from the microsphere surface, matching theoretical predictions. This system was then used to sense the accumulation of integrin and formation of focal adhesions at the apical surface of cells.     

Crystalline MgF2 whispering gallery mode resonators for enhanced bulk index sensitivity

We report on experiments on refractrometric sensing with crystalline Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) resonators made of magnesium fluoride, which has a refractive index that is only slightly larger than that of water (Δn ≈ 0.05). The resulting evanescent field of a WGM resonator placed in an aqueous environment penetrates therefore deep into the surrounding medium, which makes it a promising candidate for sensing applications. We measured a bulk index sensitivity of 1.09 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) in a resonator with a radius of R = 2.91 mm and intrinsic Q-factors of more than 10⁸ in aqueous environments. Furthermore, we describe the fabrication process of crystalline WGM resonators.     

Lasing emission of dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal microdroplet wrapped by polyglycerol in hollow glass microsphere

In this Letter,a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal(DDCLC)-filled hollow glass microsphere is demonstrated to be a resonator with good temperature response.A diglycerol layer is used to wrap the DDCLCs microdroplet to keep it steady and control its orientation.The whispering gallery mode(WGM)lasing and photonic band gap(PBG)lasing caused by two different mechanisms were obtained under the pump of a pulsed laser,and the temperature response of these two kinds of lasing was studied.For the liquid crystal and chiral material used in this Letter,both the WGM lasing and the PBG lasing have a blue shift in wavelength with increasing temperature.     

Left-handed materials do not make a perfect lens

By means of an analysis on evanescent waves in left-handed materials (LHM), we show that within a slab of such a medium, sandwiched between two positive refraction media, there is amplification of evanescent waves in ideal lossless, dispersiveless media; however, contrary to previous claims, this is limited to a finite width of the slab so that it prevents their restoration and perfect focusing. We illustrate this by considering their coupling to propagating waves through a tunnel barrier containing a slab of LHM. Further, we show that the effect of absorption, necessarily present in such materials, may drastically change any evanescent amplifying wave into a decaying one.