High quality factor silica microspheres functionalized with self-assembled nanomaterials

Abstract

With extremely low material absorption and exceptional surface smoothness, silica-based optical resonators can achieve extremely high cavity quality (Q) factors. However, the intrinsic material limitations of silica (e. g., lack of second order nonlinearity) may limit the potential applications of silica-based high Q resonators. Here we report some results in utilizing layer-by-layer self-assembly to functionalize silica microspheres with nonlinear and plasmonic nanomaterials while maintaining Q factors as high as 10(7). We compare experimentally measured Q factors with theoretical estimates, and find good agreement. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America

Description

Keywords

Whispering-gallery modes, Optical microcavities, Surfaces, Microresonators, Resonators, Adsorption, Scattering, Molecules

Citation

Ishac Kandas, Baigang Zhang, Chalongrat Daengngam, Islam Ashry, Chih-Yu Jao, Bo Peng, Sahin K. Ozdemir, Hans D. Robinson, James R. Heflin, Lan Yang, and Yong Xu, "High quality factor silica microspheres functionalized with self-assembled nanomaterials," Opt. Express 21, 20601-20610 (2013); doi: 10.1364/oe.21.020601