Ultra-high-Q free-space coupling to microtoroid resonators

Whispering gallery mode(WGM)microtoroid resonators are one of the most sensitive biochemical sensors in existence,capable of detecting single molecules.The main barrier for translating these devices out of the laboratory is that light is evanescently coupled into these devices though a tapered optical fiber.This hinders translation of these devices as the taper is fragile,suffers from mechanical vibration,and requires precise positioning.Here,we eliminate the need for an optical fiber by coupling light into and out from a toroid via free-space coupling and monitoring the scattered resonant light.A single long working distance objective lens combined with a digital micromirror device(DMD)was used for light injection,scattered light collection,and imaging.We obtain Q-factors as high as 1:6´108 with this approach.Electromagnetically induced transparency(EIT)-like and Fano resonances were observed in a single cavity due to indirect coupling in free space.This enables improved sensing sensitivity.The large effective coupling area(~10μm in diameter for numerical aperture=0.14)removes the need for precise positioning.Sensing performance was verified by combining the system with the frequency locked whispering evanescent resonator(FLOWER)approach to perform temperature sensing experiments.A thermal nonlinear optical effect was examined by tracking the resonance through FLOWER while adjusting the input power.We believe that this work will be a foundation for expanding the implementation of WGM microtoroid resonators to real-world applications.

Label-free detection of single nanoparticles and biological molecules using microtoroid optical resonators

Single-molecule detection is one of the fundamental challenges of modern biology.Such experiments often use labels that can be expensive,difficult to produce,and for small analytes,might perturb the molecular events being studied.Analyte size plays an important role in determining detectability.Here we use laser-frequency locking in the context of sensing to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of microtoroid optical resonators to the extent that single nanoparticles 2.5 nm in radius,and 15.5 kDa molecules are detected in aqueous solution,thereby bringing these detectors to the size limits needed for detecting the key macromolecules of the cell.Our results,covering several orders of magnitude of particle radius(100 nm to 2 nm),agree with the‘reactive’model prediction for the frequency shift of the resonator upon particle binding.This confirms that the main contribution of the frequency shift for the resonator upon particle binding is an increase in the effective path length due to part of the evanescent field coupling into the adsorbed particle.We anticipate that our results will enable many applications,including more sensitive medical diagnostics and fundamental studies of single receptor–ligand and protein–protein interactions in real time.

Dark mode plasmonic optical microcavity biochemical sensor

Whispering gallery mode(WGM) microtoroid optical resonators have been effectively used to sense low concentrations of biomolecules down to the single molecule limit. Optical WGM biochemical sensors such as the microtoroid operate by tracking changes in resonant frequency as particles enter the evanescent near field of the resonator.Previously, gold nanoparticles have been coupled to WGM resonators to increase the magnitude of resonance shifts via plasmonic enhancement of the electric field. However, this approach results in increased scattering from the WGM, which degrades its quality(Q) factor, making it less sensitive to extremely small frequency shifts caused by small molecules or protein conformational changes. Here, we show using simulation that precisely positioned trimer gold nanostructures generate dark modes that suppress radiation loss and can achieve high (> 10~6) Q with an electric-field intensity enhancement of 4300, which far exceeds that of a single rod(~2500 times). Through an overall evaluation of a combined enhancement factor, which includes the Q factor of the system, the sensitivity of the trimer system was improved 105× versus 84× for a single rod. Further simulations demonstrate that unlike a single rod system, the trimer is robust to orientation changes and has increased capture area. We also conduct stability tests to show that small positioning errors do not greatly impact the result.

Simulating robust far-field coupling to traveling waves in large three-dimensional nanostructured high-Q microresonators

Ultra-high quality(Q) whispering gallery mode(WGM) microtoroid optical resonators have demonstrated highly sensitive biomolecular detection down to the single molecule limit;however, the lack of a robust coupling method has prevented their widespread adoption outside the laboratory. We demonstrate through simulation that a phased array of nanorods can enable free-space coupling of light both into and out of a microtoroid while maintaining a high Q. To simulate large nanostructured WGM resonators, we developed a new approach known as FloWBEM,which is an efficient and compact 3D wedge model with custom boundary conditions that accurately simulate the resonant Fano interference between the traveling WGM waves and a nanorod array. Depending on the excitation conditions, we find loaded Q factors of the driven system as high as 2.1 × 10~7 and signal-to-background ratios as high as 3.86%, greater than the noise levels of many commercial detectors. These results can drive future experimental implementation.

Portable and sensitive air pollution monitoring

A compact optical nanofiber sensor enables detection of 100 nm particles in the field.This device improves our ability to track air quality with high spatiotemporal resolution.Air pollution has enormous health and economic costs,causing an estimated 7 million deaths per year1 and costing US$225 billion globally in 2013 according to the most recent data from the World Health Organization(WHO)and World Bank,respectively2.Despite this impact,air pollution levels continue to increase,with 92%of the world’s population living in environments in which WHO air quality guidelines are not met3.