Optoelectronic applications of sapphire microspheres

Abstract

The sphere with its highly symmetric geometrical shape enhances the efficiency of optical effects with its high quality factor morphology dependent resonances (MDRs). We report here on numerical studies of elastic light scattering in a sapphire microdisk coupled to slab waveguides, i.e., the 2D analog of a microsphere coupled to the 2D analog of an optical waveguide. The numerical electromagnetic simulations for the surface electric field strength are performed at 800 nm. The experimental elastic light scattering measurements are also proposed in the near-infrared from sapphire microspheres. 800 nm operation with sapphire microspheres is suitable for local area networks (LANs) applications such as channel dropping, filtering, switching, modulation, and monitoring.