Microspheres of Nd3+ doped barium titano silicate glass were prepared and the whispering gallery mode resonances were observed in a modified confocal microscope. A bulk sample of the same glass was calibrated as temperature sensor by the fluorescence intensity ratio technique. After that, the microsphere was heated by laser irradiation process technique in the microscope and the surface temperature was estimated using the fluorescence intensity ratio. This temperature is correlated with the displacement of the whispering gallery mode peaks, showing an average red-shift of 10 pm/K in a wide range of surface temperatures varying from 300 K to 950K. The limit of resolution in temperature was estimated for the fluorescence intensity ratio and the whispering gallery mode displacement, showing an improvement of an order of magnitude for the second method.
Whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) on Nd3+-doped glass microspheres with a radius of ∼15 μm were measured in a modified confocal microscope, where a dual spatial resolution in both excitation and detection zones was possible. As an alternative to the standard excitation mechanism by an evanescent wave, we used an efficient pumping/detecting scheme, focusing a laser in the microsphere and exciting the Nd3+ ions, whose fluorescent emission produces the WGMs. We have also measured the generated WGMs by changing the detection zone, where higher amplitude resonances were found when exciting in the center and detecting at the edge of the microsphere.
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