Whispering gallery mode hybridization in photonic molecules
Abstract
This work takes inspiration from chemistry where the spectral characteristics of the molecules are determined by hybridization of electronic states evolving from the individual atomic orbitals. Based on analogy between quantum mechanics and the classical electrodynamics, we sorted dielectric microspheres with almost identical positions of their whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonances. Using these microspheres as classical photonic atoms, we assembled them in a wide range of structures including linear chains and planar photonic molecules. We studied WGM hybridization effects in such structures using side coupling by tapered microfibers as well as finite difference time domain modeling. We demonstrated that the patterns of WGM spectral splitting are representative of the symmetry, number of constituting atoms and topology of the photonic molecules which in principle can be viewed as “spectral signatures” of various molecules. We also show new ways of controlling WGM coupling constants in such molecules. Excellent agreement was found between measured transmission spectra and spectral signatures of photonic molecules predicted by simulation. image
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1002/lpor.201600278
Entities
People
- Alexey V. Maslov
- Augustine Urbas
- Farzaneh Abolmaali
- Kenneth W. Allen
- Nicholaos I. Limberopoulos
- Vasily N. Astratov
- Yangcheng Li
- Yury P Rakovich
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- Army Research Office
- Ikerbasque
- National Science Foundation
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- University of the Basque Country