Development of whispering gallery mode polymeric micro-optical electric field sensors.

Optical modes of dielectric micro-cavities have received significant attention in recent years for their potential in a broad range of applications. The optical modes are frequently referred to as "whispering gallery modes" (WGM) or "morphology dependent resonances" (MDR) and exhibit high optical quality factors. Some proposed applications of micro-cavity optical resonators are in spectroscopy, micro-cavity laser technology, optical communications as well as sensor technology.

Tuning of whispering gallery modes of spherical resonators using an external electric field.

In this paper we investigate the electrostriction effect on the whispering gallery modes (WGM) of polymeric microspheres and the feasibility of a WGM-based microsensor for electric field measurement. The electrostriction is the elastic deformation (strain) of a dielectric material under the force exerted by an electrostatic field. The deformation is accompanied by mechanical stress which perturbs the refractive index distribution in the sphere.