Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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DF: Fachverband Dielektrische Festkörper

DF 9: Poster Session

DF 9.7: Poster

Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 14:00–16:00, P1C

Enhancing the sensitivity of polymeric whispering gallery mode micro-disks by structuring notches in the outer cavity rim — •Michael Remmel, Tobias Siegle, Sarah Krämmer, Carolin Klusmann, and Heinz Kalt — Institute of Applied Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

We present the usage of active, dye-doped, polymeric whispering gallery mode resonators as sensors. Pyrromethene 597 is embedded into PMMA (poly (methyl methacrylate)) micro-disks. If pumped optically the micro-disks exhibit sharp lasing peaks allowing easy tracking of the resonance modes via free-space excitation (fluorescence coupling) and read-out. In this way the sensors can be characterized regarding their bulk refractive index sensitivity (BRIS).

The disks are structured by electron-beam lithography on a silicon substrate. Designing notches in the outer section of the micro-disk cavities leads to enhanced interaction of the electric field with the environment due to partial free-space propagation of the cavity mode. The BRIS is determined for resonators with a varying number of notches. A sensitivity enhancement with increasing number of notches is found and compared to conventional disk cavities.