Ultra-high-Q Microresonator with Applications towards Single Nanoparticle Sensing

OF THE DISSERTATION Ultra-high-Q Microresonator with Applications towards Single Nanoparticle Sensing by Jiangang Zhu Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering Washington University in St. Louis, 2011 Research Advisor: Professor Lan Yang Whispering-gallery mode microcavities confines light and enables enhanced lightmatter interaction. They are great platforms for enhanced light-matter interactions. Using ultra-high-Q microtoroids and focusing on a phenomenon called mode splitting, we demonstrate the theory and experiments for real-time and label-free detection and size measurement of individual nanoparticles and viruses, with a theoretical size limit of R < 10 nm. It enables us to cover a large range of virus and nanoparticle sizes of great interest for biomedicine, nanotechnology, and environmental science. Moreover, this approach allows to identify the components of homogenous mixtures of particles. It exceeds the capabilities of existing schemes with its unique single particle resolution and ability for quantitative size measurement of individual nanoparticles. The techniques described here also pave the way for using active lasing microresonators as particle sensors, in which mode splitting serves as the origin of the radio frequency beatnote in the laser which indicates the binding of nanoparticles. It also lays a solid ground for using microresonators for bio-molecule detection. In addition, two non-spectrogram gased nanoparticle detection techniques: fiber taper detection and ii resonator reflection mode detection are demonstrated and future implementation on bimolecular detections are discussed.

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