Impact of nanoparticle-induced scattering of an azimuthally propagating mode on the resonance of whispering gallery microcavities

Abstract

Optical whispering gallery microcavities with high-quality factors have shown great potential toward achieveing ultrahigh-sensitivity sensing up to a single molecule or nanoparticle, which raises a huge demand on a deep theoretical insight into the crucial phenomena such as the mode shift, mode splitting, and mode broadening in sensing experiments. Here we propose an intuitive model to analyze these phenomena from the viewpoint of the nanoparticle-induced multiple scattering of the azimuthally propagating mode (APM). The model unveils explicit relations between these phenomena and the phase change and energy loss of the APM when scattered at the nanoparticle; the model also explains the observed polarization-dependent preservation of one resonance and the particle-dependent redshift or blueshift. The model indicates that the particle-induced coupling between the pair of unperturbed degenerate whispering gallery modes (WGMs) and the coupling between the WGMs and the free-space radiation modes, which are widely adopted in current theoretical formalisms, are realized via the reflection and scattering-induced free-space radiation of the APM, respectively, and additionally exhibits the contribution of cross coupling between the unperturbed WGMs and other different WGMs to forming the splitting resonant modes, especially for large particles.