Batch Fabrication of High‐Quality Infrared Chalcogenide Microsphere Resonators

Xie, Yuanfu; Cai, Dawei; Pan, Jie; Zhou, Ning; Gao, Yixiao; Jin, Yingying; Jiang, Xiaoshun; Qiu, Jianrong; Wang, Pan; Guo, Xin; Tong, Limin

doi:10.1002/smll.202100140

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Figure 2e,f presents close-up cryo-TEM images of the surface of the microsphere in Figure 2d, with estimated maximal and minimal rootmean-square surface roughness of 4.7 nm (Figure 2e) and 1.8 nm (Figure 2f), respectively. Compared with conventional microcavities (e.g., silica, [43] chalcogenide microspheres [44] ) that have been intensively investigated, this relatively large surface roughness of the ice microspheres may be mainly attributed to the rapid freezing process, which can render ice microspheres polycrystalline, and thereby increase the surface inhomogeneity. Nevertheless, we believe it is possible to further reduce the surface roughness by optimizing the fabrication parameters (e.g., freezing rate, and ambient humidity), [45,46] and/or performing a thermal annealing process [11,47] at low temperatures to eliminate the defects like microcracks on the surface of ice microspheres.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice Microsphere Optical Cavities

Li,

Cui,

et al. 2024

Advanced Optical Materials

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Whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical microcavities have played an essential role in both fundamental research and practical applications, such as cavity quantum electrodynamics, optomechanics, microlasers, and optical sensors. While microcavities made of various materials (e.g., SiO2, As2S3, polymethylmethacrylate) have been extensively investigated, exploiting new materials for microcavities holds great promise for expanding the functionalities of the microcavities. As one of the most ubiquitous and important solids on earth's surface, ice exhibits intriguing optical properties that render it an excellent material for optical applications. Here, ice microsphere optical cavities are demonstrated for the first time. By rapidly freezing water microdroplets, ice microspheres are batch‐fabricated with relatively smooth surfaces and diameters of 5–50 µm. Excitation of a series of WGMs within ice microsphere cavities is achieved over a broad spectral range from near‐ultraviolet to near‐infrared region (380–1600 nm) with quality factors up to 1.4 × 103. Considering the extremely low absorption coefficient of ice in the ultraviolet, this work provides an exceptional platform for exploring ultraviolet microcavity photonics and its diverse applications.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice Microsphere Optical Cavities

Li,

Cui,

et al. 2024

Advanced Optical Materials

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“…Fabrication of Chalcogenide Microspheres: The As 2 S 3 microspheres with excellent surface smoothness and extremely low eccentricity were batchfabricated according to the recently developed oil-based approach. [27] High-purity (>99.999%) As 2 S 3 fused lumps (04 1980, Alfa Aesar) were first triturated into powders and mixed with high-purity methyl silicone oil (a kind of heat transfer oil). Then, the oil suspension was heated to ≈260 °C and kept for more than 5 min to make As 2 S 3 powders melt into microspheres (the generation of toxic As 2 O 3 was avoided thanks to the oxygen-free environment provided by the methyl silicone oil).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimentally, high-quality As 2 S 3 microspheres (Figure 2a) with sizes ranging from several to hundreds of micro meters were batch-fabricated by melting As 2 S 3 powders in an oil environment (see the Experimental Section). [27] The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a 77.9 µm diameter As 2 S 3 microsphere (Figure 2a, inset) shows that as-fabricated As 2 S 3 microspheres have a nearly perfect round shape and excellent surface smoothness, which are beneficial for highquality imaging. A commercial Blu-ray disk (BD) consisting of 220 nm wide stripes and 100 nm wide grooves (Figure 2b), which cannot be resolved by a 100× objective (NA = 0.75) equipped microscope (Figure 2b, inset) under white-light illumination (peaked at λ p = 646 nm), was used as a sub-diffraction-limited specimen.…”

Section: Full-immersed In Pmma Filmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chalcogenide Microsphere‐Assisted Optical Super‐Resolution Imaging

Xie

Cai

Pan

et al. 2022

Advanced Optical Materials

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Microsphere‐assisted optical imaging has been proved straightforward and cost‐effective for super‐resolution imaging in material science and biomedical research. Optically transparent microspheres with a high refractive index are critical for achieving superior super‐resolution capabilities yet remain to be further exploited. Here, the use of As2S3 (an optically transparent chalcogenide glass) microspheres, with a refractive index as high as 2.31 (at 600 nm) and diameters ranging from 10 to 215 µm, for optical super‐resolution imaging is reported. Under white‐light illumination (peaked at 646 nm), As2S3 microspheres full‐immersed in polymethyl methacrylate or immersion oil generate super‐resolved virtual images of nanostructures (≈90 nm in minimum feature size) with a magnification up to 8×. The lateral resolution of full‐immersed microspheres, which can be as low as ≈172 nm for a 19 µm diameter As2S3 microsphere, is also investigated. Moreover, super‐resolved real imaging of nanostructures with semi‐immersed As2S3 microspheres is demonstrated for the first time. Compared with the full‐immersion approach (e.g., for a 30 µm diameter microsphere, the image plane is ≈30 µm underneath the specimen with a magnification of 4.3×), the semi‐immersion approach provides an obvious improvement in the magnification (6.6×) and a much longer operation distance to the objective (the image plane is ≈140 µm above the specimen).

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“…in which κ 0 is the intrinsic loss rate, κ ex is the coupling loss rate and T is the transmission). More recently, Xie et al used As 2 S 3 biconical tapered fibers for the first characterization of ChG microsphere resonators in the mid-IR re-gion (Figure 3c) [65]. A 1.6-µm-diameter As 2 S 3 fiber taper was used for near-field coupling with ChG microspheres with the coupling loss less than 3 dB over 4.465-4.705 µm.…”

Section: Photonic Applications 41 Near-field Optical Couplersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chalcogenide Glass Microfibers for Mid-Infrared Optics

et al. 2021

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With diameters close to the wavelength of the guided light, optical microfibers (MFs) can guide light with tight optical confinement, strong evanescent fields and manageable waveguide dispersion and have been widely investigated in the past decades for a variety of applications. Compared to silica MFs, which are ideal for working in visible and near-infrared regions, chalcogenide glass (ChG) MFs are promising for mid-infrared (mid-IR) optics, owing to their easy fabrication, broad-band transparency and high nonlinearity, and have been attracting increasing attention in applications ranging from near-field coupling and molecular sensing to nonlinear optics. Here, we review this emerging field, mainly based on its progress in the last decade. Starting from the high-temperature taper drawing technique for MF fabrication, we introduce basic mid-IR waveguiding properties of typical ChG MFs made of As2S3 and As2Se3. Then, we focus on ChG-MF-based passive optical devices, including optical couplers, resonators and gratings and active and nonlinear applications of ChG MFs for mid-IR Raman lasers, frequency combs and supercontinuum (SC) generation. MF-based spectroscopy and chemical/biological sensors are also introduced. Finally, we conclude the review with a brief summary and an outlook on future challenges and opportunities of ChG MFs.

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Batch Fabrication of High‐Quality Infrared Chalcogenide Microsphere Resonators

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

Ice Microsphere Optical Cavities

Ice Microsphere Optical Cavities

Chalcogenide Microsphere‐Assisted Optical Super‐Resolution Imaging

Chalcogenide Glass Microfibers for Mid-Infrared Optics

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