Optical cavity mode excitations in metal-coated microspheres

Michael Himmelhaus

doi:10.1117/12.762745

21 February 2008 Optical cavity mode excitations in metal-coated microspheres

Michael Himmelhaus

Proceedings Volume 6862, Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Imaging; 68620U (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.762745
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2008, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

We present some recent results of our work on cavity mode excitations in metal-coated microspheres, which aims at the development of a novel type of bio-chemical sensor. In contrast to the well-known whispering gallery modes (WGM) of dielectric particles, metal-coated dielectric microspheres also allow for excitation of modes in radial direction, the so-called Fabry-Perot modes (FPM). One hurdle of such excitation is the proper adjustment of the reflectivity of the metallic coating, which either causes a low quality factor of the modes in case of insufficient thickness, or, otherwise, shields the inner cavity from outside excitation. The talk will present a novel concept on how such intricacies may be overcome by proper selection of excitation wavelength and materials choice, and will demonstrate that FPM modes may be excited in metal-coated microspheres with diameters down to 1 μm. First examples of utilization of such cavity modes for bio-chemical sensing will be given. Besides sensing, potential applications of metallic microcavities are related to the development of optical point sources, microscopic lasers, and to nonlinear nano-photonics.

Citation Download Citation

Michael Himmelhaus "Optical cavity mode excitations in metal-coated microspheres", Proc. SPIE 6862, Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Imaging, 68620U (21 February 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.762745

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