[14p-2C-1~12] 4.3 Optical Micro-sensing, Manipulation, and Fabrications

▲ [14p-2C-6] Gas Flow Sensor using a Hollow WGM Microlaser

〇(P)Jonathan Ward¹, Yong Yang¹, Sile NicChormaic¹ (1.Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology)

Keywords:Whispering Gallery, Erbium doped Microlaser, gas flow sensor

Here, we experimentally explore, for the first time, the idea of silica microbubble or microcapillary resonators coated with a layer of laser glass, in this case Yb:Er doped phosphate glass (Kigre, Inc). This is realized by the fact that the two glasses have different melting points. The Er:Yb doped glass outer layer is pumped at 980 nm and lasing is observed at 1535 nm. Thermal tuning of the lasing mode over 70 GHz is achieved by flowing air through the cavity. The cavity can also be passively probed at 780 nm. In this passive regime gas flow sensing using the concept of a “hot cavity” is discussed and preliminary measurements and characterization of the system is presented.