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Whispering gallery microcavity lasers
Author(s) -
He Lina,
Özdemir Şahin Kaya,
Yang Lan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
laser and photonics reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.778
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1863-8899
pISSN - 1863-8880
DOI - 10.1002/lpor.201100032
Subject(s) - lasing threshold , laser linewidth , whispering gallery wave , laser , resonator , optoelectronics , optical microcavity , optics , q factor , materials science , optical cavity , semiconductor laser theory , tunable laser , physics
Whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical microresonators have attracted intense interests in the past decades. The combination of high quality factors ( Q ) and small mode volumes of modes in WGM resonators significantly enhances the light‐matter interactions, making them excellent cavities for achieving low threshold and narrow linewidth lasers. In this Review, the progress in WGM microcavity lasers is summarized, and the laser performance considering resonator geometries and materials as well as lasing mechanisms is discussed. Label‐free detection using WGM resonators has emerged as highly sensitive detection schemes. However, the resolution is mainly limited by the cavity Q factor which determines the mode linewidth. Microcavity lasers, due to their narrow laser spectral width, could greatly improve the detection resolution. Some recent developments in sensing using microcavity lasers are discussed.