Integrated end-to-end instrumentation for the study of whispering gallery modes in dynamic liquid micro-cavities coupled to sub-micron tapered fibers

Abstract

An integrated table-top facility with the end-to-end instrumentation for the study of high-Q Whispering Gallery Modes in solid and liquid micro-cavities is described, with emphasis on the in situ fabrication of reliable tapered fibers of sub-micron waist sizes for coupling light into time-dependent liquid micro-cavities. The experimental parameters have been chosen to get nearly adiabatic tapers, with their waist size consistent with the theoretical model. The oscillations in the transmitted power during fiber tapering are monitored to check the coupling of higher order modes and identify the point when the fiber is suitable for pure single mode coupling. The fabricated tapered fibers have greater than 85% transmission on the average and very good polarization fidelity. The tapered fibers have been used for efficiently exciting and detecting WGMs of Q∼10⁷ in silica microspheres and of Q up to 7×10⁷ in microdrops of silicone oils. The set-up is suitable for conversion to a transportable system, for sensing applications involving WGMs in liquid microdrops.