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Effects of size and surrounding medium on whispering-gallery-mode lasers in Er3+-doped silica microspheres

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Abstract

This work reports the experimental fabrication and characterization of the Er3+-doped silica microspheres (μS) and numerical investigation of the effects of size and surrounding medium on the optical properties of whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) lasers. The heat melting method of two discharge electrodes was used to produce the Er3+-doped silica μSs of diameters up to several tens of micrometers. The 125-μm diameter single-mode optical fiber was tapered with a cone angle formed by chemical etching in hydrofluoric acid (HF) solutions. It was used to produce the μSs and couple the pumped laser into μS surface as well was coupled out the lasing emission. The WGM lasers at telecom regime of ~ 1520–1570 nm were characterized in both clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) propagation directions. By adjusting the coupling gap between the tapered optical fiber and the μS surface, the selectivity of the multi- or single-emitted modes of the μS laser was achieved. We performed finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to examine the size dependence and analyze the effect of the surrounding medium’s refractive index on the optical characteristics, such as emission wavelength, intensity, as well as the shape of WGM lasing emission. The facile approach and quantitative investigation of this work has attracted much attention from researchers in the micro-photonic field and may be useful in many applications from tunable single-mode lasing sensing to optical micro-devices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Martin J. Cryan of the University of Bristol, United Kingdom for his unconditional support in simulation software, Dr. Z. Skeete of the State University of New York at Binghamton, New York, United States for discussion on the manuscript. This research is funded by Institute of Materials Science (IMS) under Grant Number “CS.09/20-21” and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) under Grant Number “KHCBVL.06/21-22”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Thu Trang Hoang, Van Dai Pham & Thanh Son Pham

  2. Leia Inc, 2440 Sand Hill Road, Suite 100, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA

    Khai Q. Le

  3. University of Science and Technology of Hanoi, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Xuan Bach Nguyen & Quang Minh Ngo

  4. Graduate University of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Quang Minh Ngo

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  1. Thu Trang Hoang
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Hoang, T.T., Pham, V.D., Pham, T.S. et al. Effects of size and surrounding medium on whispering-gallery-mode lasers in Er3+-doped silica microspheres. Opt Quant Electron 54, 185 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-022-03580-4

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