Magnetic sensor based on WGM hollow microbubble resonator filled with magnetic fluid

Abstract

In this work, a magnetic sensing scheme based on whispering gallery mode (WGM) hollow microbubble resonator (HMR) filled with magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed. The HMR is made by the pressure-assisted arc discharge method on the microcapillary. WGM is excited by evanescent fields in HMR. The quality factor of resonator is 4.02×106. Then, the influence of the wall thickness of HMR and the concentration of MF on the sensor is studied both theoretically and experimentally. When MF is infiltrated in the HMR, the refractive index (RI) of the MF increases with the increase of the magnetic field intensity, resulting in the shift of the resonance wavelength. By reducing the wall thickness, the magnetic sensing sensitivity is increased from 2.6 pm/mT to 25.21 pm/mT within the magnetic field intensity range of 2 mT–20 mT. In addition, the increase in the concentration of MF and the clustering phenomenon caused by it have also been observed. This work provides a novel magnetic sensing scheme, and the proposed WGM resonator has great application prospects in optofluidic sensing.