Predicting the whispering gallery mode spectra of microresonators

Jonathan M. M. Hall; Shahraam Afshar V.; Matthew R. Henderson; Alexandre François; Tess Reynolds; Nicolas Riesen; Tanya M. Monro

doi:10.1117/12.2078526

3 March 2015 Predicting the whispering gallery mode spectra of microresonators

Jonathan M. M. Hall, Shahraam Afshar V., Matthew R. Henderson, Alexandre François, Tess Reynolds, Nicolas Riesen, Tanya M. Monro

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9343, Laser Resonators, Microresonators, and Beam Control XVII; 93431Y (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2078526
Event: SPIE LASE, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

The whispering gallery modes (WGMs) of optical resonators have prompted intensive research eﬀorts due to their usefulness in the ﬁeld of biological sensing, and their employment in nonlinear optics. While much information is available in the literature on numerical modeling of WGMs in microspheres, it remains a challenging task to be able to predict the emitted spectra of spherical microresonators. Here, we establish a customizable Finite-Diﬀerence Time-Domain (FDTD)-based approach to investigate the WGM spectrum of microspheres. The simulations are carried out in the vicinity of a dipole source rather than a typical plane-wave beam excitation, thus providing an eﬀective analogue of the ﬂuorescent dye or nanoparticle coatings used in experiment. The analysis of a single dipole source at diﬀerent positions on the surface or inside a microsphere, serves to assess the relative eﬃciency of nearby radiating TE and TM modes, characterizing the proﬁle of the spectrum. By varying the number, positions and alignments of the dipole sources, diﬀerent excitation scenarios can be compared to analytic models, and to experimental results. The energy ﬂux is collected via a nearby disk-shaped region. The resultant spectral proﬁle shows a dependence on the conﬁguration of the dipole sources. The power outcoupling can then be optimized for speciﬁc modes and wavelength regions. The development of such a computational tool can aid the preparation of optical sensors prior to fabrication, by preselecting desired the optical properties of the resonator.

Citation Download Citation

Jonathan M. M. Hall, Shahraam Afshar V., Matthew R. Henderson, Alexandre François, Tess Reynolds, Nicolas Riesen, and Tanya M. Monro "Predicting the whispering gallery mode spectra of microresonators", Proc. SPIE 9343, Laser Resonators, Microresonators, and Beam Control XVII, 93431Y (3 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2078526

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