Q-factor of spherical optical silicon dioxide nanoresonators

The Q-factor of the bound optical modes of silicon dioxide spheres with a radius smaller than one micron has been studied in the visible spectrum, showing that local photonic states with a nonzero orbital momentum yield a thin structure in glow spectra, whose maxima positions depend on the diameters of SiO₂ nanospheres. A theoretical model to calculate the Q-factor of nanoresonators depending on the wavelengths of bound modes and the radius value of spheres has been proposed. It has been shown that the quality of an optical resonator increases as its diameter grows. The Q-factor values have been calculated for the visible light of the order of 10 for spheres smaller than 1 μm in diameter and 10⁶ for spheres of more than 7 μm in diameter. A dependence of bound modes’ radiation propagation outside of the sphere on their wavelengths and orbital momenta has been detected.