Optical pulse propagation via whispering gallery modes in glass spheres

Conference · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:554843

Whitten, W B; Shaw, R W; Barnes, M D; Ramsey, J M ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Chemical and Analytical Sciences Div.

Early in this century, Rayleigh showed that waves could propagate close to the wall of a spherical cavity with very little loss as long as the wavelength was small compared to the cavity circumference. The treatment was primarily for acoustic waves, modeling the whispering gallery effect, but he pointed out that electromagnetic waves should behave similarly. Study of the optical properties of dielectric spheres has received new interest with improvements in optical instrumentation and the emergency of new applications for high-Q resonators. It has recently been shown that optical pulses propagating in whispering gallery modes can be treated analogously to pulses in a fiber optic waveguide. Since the optical fields extend beyond the surface of the sphere, the sphere`s environment could alter propagation properties such as cavity ringdown time. The authors describe here some time and frequency-domain measurements of picosecond pulses in glass spheres of millimeter dimension and discuss potential analytical applications.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-96OR22464
• OSTI ID: 554843
• Report Number(s): ORNL/CP--95056; CONF-9703126--; ON: DE98000682; BR: KC0302020
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

40 CHEMISTRY
ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY
ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSES
GLASS
LASER RADIATION
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
OPTICAL EQUIPMENT
RESONATORS
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
WAVE PROPAGATION