Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and Atoms
This review article discusses fundamentals of dielectric, low-loss, optical micro-resonator sensing, including figures of merit and a variety of microcavity designs, and future perspectives in microcavity-based optical sensing. Resonance frequency and quality (Q) factor are altered as a means of det...
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Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/11/2/1972/ |
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doaj-af8d54b4cf2e447781c051da9a7af8e22020-11-24T23:02:49ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202011-02-011121972199110.3390/s110201972Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and AtomsShu-Yu SuLingling TangTomoyuki YoshieThis review article discusses fundamentals of dielectric, low-loss, optical micro-resonator sensing, including figures of merit and a variety of microcavity designs, and future perspectives in microcavity-based optical sensing. Resonance frequency and quality (Q) factor are altered as a means of detecting a small system perturbation, resulting in realization of optical sensing of a small amount of sample materials, down to even single molecules. Sensitivity, Q factor, minimum detectable index change, noises (in sensor system components and microcavity system including environments), microcavity size, and mode volume are essential parameters to be considered for optical sensing applications. Whispering gallery mode, photonic crystal, and slot-type microcavities typically provide compact, high-quality optical resonance modes for optical sensing applications. Surface Bloch modes induced on photonic crystals are shown to be a promising candidate thanks to large field overlap with a sample and ultra-high-Q resonances. Quantum optics effects based on microcavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) would provide novel single-photo-level detection of even single atoms and molecules via detection of doublet vacuum Rabi splitting peaks in strong coupling. http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/11/2/1972/microcavityindex sensingabsorption sensingquality factorphotonic crystalwhispering gallery modesurface Bloch modesingle moleculesingle atomcavity QED |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Shu-Yu Su Lingling Tang Tomoyuki Yoshie |
spellingShingle |
Shu-Yu Su Lingling Tang Tomoyuki Yoshie Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and Atoms Sensors microcavity index sensing absorption sensing quality factor photonic crystal whispering gallery mode surface Bloch mode single molecule single atom cavity QED |
author_facet |
Shu-Yu Su Lingling Tang Tomoyuki Yoshie |
author_sort |
Shu-Yu Su |
title |
Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and Atoms |
title_short |
Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and Atoms |
title_full |
Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and Atoms |
title_fullStr |
Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and Atoms |
title_full_unstemmed |
Optical Microcavity: Sensing down to Single Molecules and Atoms |
title_sort |
optical microcavity: sensing down to single molecules and atoms |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sensors |
issn |
1424-8220 |
publishDate |
2011-02-01 |
description |
This review article discusses fundamentals of dielectric, low-loss, optical micro-resonator sensing, including figures of merit and a variety of microcavity designs, and future perspectives in microcavity-based optical sensing. Resonance frequency and quality (Q) factor are altered as a means of detecting a small system perturbation, resulting in realization of optical sensing of a small amount of sample materials, down to even single molecules. Sensitivity, Q factor, minimum detectable index change, noises (in sensor system components and microcavity system including environments), microcavity size, and mode volume are essential parameters to be considered for optical sensing applications. Whispering gallery mode, photonic crystal, and slot-type microcavities typically provide compact, high-quality optical resonance modes for optical sensing applications. Surface Bloch modes induced on photonic crystals are shown to be a promising candidate thanks to large field overlap with a sample and ultra-high-Q resonances. Quantum optics effects based on microcavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) would provide novel single-photo-level detection of even single atoms and molecules via detection of doublet vacuum Rabi splitting peaks in strong coupling. |
topic |
microcavity index sensing absorption sensing quality factor photonic crystal whispering gallery mode surface Bloch mode single molecule single atom cavity QED |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/11/2/1972/ |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT shuyusu opticalmicrocavitysensingdowntosinglemoleculesandatoms AT linglingtang opticalmicrocavitysensingdowntosinglemoleculesandatoms AT tomoyukiyoshie opticalmicrocavitysensingdowntosinglemoleculesandatoms |
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