1

Pseudo-Surface Wave Resonator and its Applications

Puck Ja
https://sites.google.com/site/puckswork/

Introduction
Optical dielectric microresonators with circular boundaries that support whispering-gallery mode (WGM)
resonance, such as microspheres [1], microdisks [2], and microrings [3], have been widely used in
biological and chemical material sensing applications. The high-quality (Q) resonance established by
such resonators provides the capability of high-resolution spectroscopy thanks to the narrow resonance
bandwidth and the resulting high signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. Resonance may be acquired by coupling
interrogation light into a microresonator and then detecting an out-coupled signal. When samples present
in the proximity of the microresonator and interact with the evanescent field of the resonating light, the
change of the resonant spectrum provides a detection signal. Detection limits as low as 1E-7 refractive
index (RI) for bulk refractive index sensing have been experimentally demonstrated [3, 4], and even
lower limits have been predicted through theoretical analysis [1]. Recently, a new type of WGM ring
resonator formed by a thin-wall capillary has also been proposed [5]. While sample flows through the
capillary bore along the longitudinal axis, it can be detected by the optical ring defined along the inner
circumference of the capillary by coupling the interrogation light transversely. Thus, the inner surface
serves as the wall of the fluidic channel and the sensing surface simultaneously. Such a design has a great
advantage by separating the sample flow and optical path, which not only reduces the complexity of the
system design but also makes WGM sensing technology feasible for practical applications.

Since WGM microresonators are most sensitive at the sample-resonator interface due to the exponential
decay profile of the evanescent field, most commonly proposed sensing schemes for WGM resonators are
based on surface binding events, such as immunoassays or detection of surface adsorption. However, the
sensitivity of this model is limited due to the fact that the evanescent wave accounts for only a small
percentage of the total resonance field. Most of the resonant light resides inside the resonator body and is
isolated from the sample to be sensed. The already-low sensitivity is further reduced in the case of
gaseous samples since the evanescent field intensity decreases when the refractive index contrast between
the sample and resonator becomes greater. In order to improve sensitivity, work has been done to
increase the evanescent field strength. For example, microspheres with higher radii of curvature,
microrings with narrower waveguides [3], microspheres coated with high refractive index materials [6],
and liquid ring resonators [7] have been proposed for improved sensitivity. However, because sensitivity
alone does not determine the detection limit, considerations such as the ratio of the sensitivity to the
resolution of the specific interrogation method [8] must also be addressed. For example, the resonance
quality or the spectral linewidth needs to be maintained to manifest the full advantage of improved
sensitivity.

Due to the low evanescent field, traditional WGM sensors are not optimized for volume sensing
applications, such as bulk refractive index sensing or absorption spectroscopy. The majority of the WGM
resonant light resides inside the resonator body and close to the surface and, hence, cannot interact with
the entire sample, especially the portion of the sample distant from the resonator surface. This problem is
even more pronounced for mid-infrared (MIR) applications because the resonator materials commonly
used in WGM sensors have significant material absorption at those wavelengths. Such excessive loss
caused by the resonator body results in poor resonance quality and thus prevents traditional WGM sensors
being used in MIR absorption spectroscopy applications.

Here, an inverse type of optical microresonator, which extends a greater portion of resonant light into
the sample volume, is presented so as to provide improved sensitivity for either surface or volume
sensing. In traditional WGM microresonator sensor applications [1-7], a resonator body with optically
2
denser material guides the light and establishes the evanescent field outside the body through the property
of total internal reflection (TIR). In the inverse resonator being described, a curved reflective wall is used
to guide the light inside the sample volume to enable use of the full wave for sensing. In one sense, the
inverse resonator may be comprehended as a Fabry-Perot resonator with both ends connected to form an
infinite loop. The circulating light continuously bounces around the circular reflective wall and hence
forms a light wave that peaks close to the surface. However, this surface-bound field is not an
evanescent wave but constitutes a full wave going through a continuous reflection. Consequently, this
phenomenon has been termed a pseudo-surface wave (PSW). The pseudo-surface wave goes around the
circular boundary and may form resonance once the phases are matched after each loop.

Since PSW resonance can be formed with any circular reflective wallfor example, the cross section of a
cylindrical structureone natural application of PSW resonance is the detection of analytes in a sample
passing through a circular tube, such as gas/liquid chromatography columns, fluid/gas transport tubing, or
even factory or laboratory plumbing lines. Bulk refractive index sensing or absorption spectroscopy may
be implemented. Since most of the resonating energy of the PSW mode resides in the sample volume
instead of sensor device itself, the excessive absorption loss issue at the mid-infrared wavelength is
avoided. The inner surface of a PSW resonator also can be modified and functionalized to provide sensing
specificity; the modified PSW mode can be optimized to have high sensitivity to detect chemically or
physically adsorbed samples on the sensing surface. With improved sensitivity, versatile sensing
applications, convenient fluidics design, and simplified optical interrogation, PSW sensors have great
potential in physical, chemical, and biological sensing applications.

The reflective surface of PSW resonators can be formed by metallic mirrors or dielectric mirrors, such as
1D or 2D photonic bandgap (PBG) structures. In this report, a PSW model with a perfect electric
conductor (PEC) wall and 1D photonic bandgap wall will be used for analytical and numerical analysis.
After the discussion of theoretical model, several coupling schemes will be discussed. Finally, both the
volume and surface sensitivity of the proposed PSW sensors will be analyzed and compared with those of
other WGM sensors.

Pseudo-surface Mode Resonance
Although the fundamental means for light-guiding in a PSW resonator is quite different from that of
traditional WGM resonators, both be modeled with essentially identical mathematical equations but with
different boundary conditions since both are morphological-dependent resonances inside a circular cavity.
A two-dimension analysis is performed here for the simplicity and for the direct relation to the
applications with tubular structures. The electric field of a transverse-electric (TE) mode inside a simple
PSW resonator with a reflective wall can be described as

|
|
<
<
=
w w m
w s m
z
r m n k BH
r m n k J A
E
); cos( ) (
); cos( ) (
0
) 1 (
0
, (1)

where
m
J is the Bessel function,
) 1 (
m
H is the Hankel function of the first kind,
0
k is the free-space wave
number,
w
r is the inner radius of the PSW reflective wall, and
s
n and
w
n are the refractive indices of
the medium (sample) in the borehole and of the wall, respectively.

The transverse-magnetic (TM) equation may be derived with duality. For a reflector of finite
conductivity, the resonant wavelength can be found by matching the boundary conditions. If perfect
electric conduction is used, the electric field in the wall will be zero, and the resonance mode can be
found simply by solving the roots of the Bessel function. The -th root is used to solve for the resonance
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wavelength of the -th radial mode, which has peaks in the field spatial profile along the radial
direction. As shown in Figure 1, the lowest radial order mode ( =1) has only one energy peak along the
radial direction (solid line in the plot), and its position is close to the reflective wall. For higher radial
modes, multiple spatial energy peaks will be distributed along the radial direction with the largest peak
located closer to the center of the bore. Therefore, the lowest radial order PSW mode may be modified for
surface sensing application, and higher order modes may be used for volume sensing applications.

The azimuthal mode number, m, indicates the number of periods around the circumference of the PSW
resonator. For example, the
1
25
=
=

m
TE mode shown in Figure 1 has 25 periods along the inner
circumference and one peak on the radial axis. The spatial distributions of a 2D PSW mode and a WGM
mode are visually similar. According to the ray-tracing model [9], the resonance wavelength can
therefore be approximated by

) 2 / 1 /( 2 + = m n r
s cs
t (2)

where
cs
r is the caustic radius of the resonant mode.

1
25
=
=

m
TE

2
21
=
=

m
TE

9
2
=
=

m
TE



Figure 1.Spatial distributions of PSW resonance with various radial modes: the radial distribution of the 1
st

order mode is shown as a solid line, 2
nd
order mode as a dashed line, and 9
th
order mode as a dotted line.
The azimuthal distribution images are embedded in the plot, and the mode numbers are labeled.

Volume Sensitivity
Sensitivity is directly related to the resonant energy interacting with the sample medium. Therefore, the
volume (bulk) refractive index sensitivity of the PSW sensor will always be optimized because the total
energy always resides inside the sensing zone and is independent of the radial mode order. However, the
lower order mode probes closer to the inner surface, while the higher order mode interrogates the region
closer to the center of the capillary borehole. If the excited mode can be controlled, volume sensing with
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an adjustable probing depth in the radial direction may be possible. The PSW mode excitation/coupling
control will be discussed later.

Although most literature expresses bulk refractive index sensitivity reported as a unit of wavelength shift
per unit refractive index change (e.g., nm/RI), such representation is actually operating wavelength-
dependent and hence may not be suitable for absolute performance comparison. Therefore, normalized
volume RI sensitivity (NVS), which is defined as ) /( dn d , is used in this comparison. Based on Eq.
(2), the NVS of a PSW sensor can be expressed by a simple equation,

NVS =
s
n / 1 , (3)

where
s
n is the bulk refractive index of the sample in the resonator. Based on this model, the NVS of a
PSW sensor to aqueous and gaseous sample is ~0.75 and ~1.00, respectively. For demonstration
purposes, these values can also be converted back to the traditionally used units. The bulk RI sensitivity
of a PSW sensor with aqueous sample at 980-, 1310-, and 1550-nm wavelengths would be about 735,
983, and 1163 nm/RIU, respectively. All these numbers are consistent with the results directly solved
from Eq. (1) at corresponding wavelengths. The NVS of a PSW and a Fabry-Perot (etalon) sensor are
exactly the same, which is expected since both use their full wave in the volume sensing mode.

Modified PSW Modes
Although the lowest order PSW mode has its spatial peak close to the resonator inner surface, the field
intensity at the interface is actually zero with a PEC wall, which will provide zero sensitivity on that
surface. However, if we modify the PSW inner surface with certain transparent dielectric coatings, the
sensing surface is now moved to the interface of the sample/coating surface. As will be shown, the
resonant field at the sensing surface may be adjusted from zero to almost the maximum value, depending
on the coating thickness. Therefore, by using a standoff coating layer, the sensitivity of the surface
sensing mode can be adjusted and optimized. The thickness of the standoff layer should be small enough
so that a full guiding mode cannot be formed in the standoff layer.

The electric field of the TE mode in the modified PSW resonator with a standoff coating layer can be
described as

|
| |
|
<
< < +
<
=
w w m
c s c m c m
s s m
z
r m n k H D
r r m n k Y C m n k J B
r m n k J A
E
); cos( ) (
); cos( ) ( ) cos( ) (
); cos( ) (
0
) 1 (
0 0
0
,
(4)

where
c
n and
c w
r r are the RI and coating thickness. By specifying the coating properties, the
resonance mode can be solved by matching the boundary conditions at
w
r and
c
r . The calculated lowest
order modes of a PSW resonator (
w
r = 55 m) filled with aqueous solution (RI = 1.333), coated with
standoff layers (RI = 1.45) of various thicknesses (from 0 to 1 m), and interrogated by a light source
with wavelength centered about 980 nm are shown in Figure 2. The distribution of the field intensity
square at the sensing zone is plotted against the relative distance from the sensing surface. The points at
the sensing surface are also marked with crosses. The coating thicknesses are specified in the legend.
Note that the sensing surface for the PSW with and without a standoff layer would be on the sample/PEC
and sample/dielectric interface, respectively.

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When there is no standoff layer (coating thickness = 0), the field intensity is zero at the sensing surface.
As the coating thickness increases, the intensity square at the sensing surface starts to grow and reaches a
local maximum value when the coating thickness is about 400 nm. However, the light intensity at the
sensing surface can still be increased with a thicker coating. The global maximum value at a sensing spot
is reached with a 510-nm coating. With an even thicker coating, such as 600 nm, the peak intensity can
increase further but the intensity at the sensing surface actually decreases.


r
c
r
w


Figure 2. PSW field intensity square at a distance relative to the sensing surface. The inner diameter is
55 m and filled with aqueous solution (RI = 1.333).


Surface Sensitivity
Based on reported sensitivity studies of WGM sensors [1, 8], the sensing sensitivity is determined by the
energy fraction,q , residing at the sampling volume. This same approach can be used here to analyze and
optimize the surface sensing sensitivity of PSW sensors. By assuming small perturbation (
s a
n n n = A )
caused by a thin uniform layer of analyte deposition (RI =
a
n ), the normalized spectral sensitivity (NSS)
can be estimated as

NSS =
s
n n
q

~
A
A

(5)

according to Ref. 10. When other parameters are held constant, the sensitivity will be proportional to the
energy fraction inside the sensing zone, which is then proportional to the field intensity square at the
sensing surface. Comparing Eq. (3) and Eq. (5), it can be seen that NSS is actually a fraction of NVS,
which is the maximum available sensitivity, and the energy fraction in the surface sensing zone
determines the final sensitivity. The energy fraction residing in the analyte deposition volume can be
found out as:

6
dv r E r
r E n L r
dv r E r
dv r E r
V
c a c
V
s
V
} }
}
= =
2
0
2
2
0
2
0
2
0
) ( ) (
) ( ) 2 (
) ( ) (
) ( ) (
c c
c t
c c
c c
q , (6)
where
s
V is the volume of the surface sensing zone and L is the PSW mode distributed length in the
longitudinal direction, which will have the same contribution to the numerator and denominator and can
be cancelled out if a uniform deposition is assumed.

In order to validate the linear relationship between surface sensitivity and energy fraction, a
computational study of the sensitivity based on a numerical model of a 110-m PSW resonator modified
by standoff coating layers of various thicknesses was conducted. The spectral shift due to a uniform 1-nm
analyte deposition (RI = 1.45) and the energy fraction within analyte volume were calculated and
compared at an interrogation wavelength of 980 nm. Excellent linearity between spectral shifts and
energy fractions are shown in the top graph of Figure 3 with standoff layers of 100, 200, 300, 400, 450,
and 510 nm. The R2 value of the linear fit is ~0.999958. The spectral shift and the surface sensitivity
reach an optimal value when a 510-nm standoff layer is coated onto the inner surface as is shown in the
bottom plot of Figure 3. The peak sensitivity reduces slowly when the coating thickness is off the optimal
case, which provides good tolerance on the coating thickness for the optimal sensitivity.

A uniform 1-nm analyte deposition with RI,
a
n = 1.45, was used as the standard to compute the
normalized surface sensitivity. At this optimal sensitivity, about 122-pm spectral shift or NSS = 1.1E-3
was observed with the 1-nm analyte deposition.

Figure 3. (top) PSW mode resonant wavelength shift versus the energy fraction at the analyte deposition
layer. (bottom) Resonant wavelength shift versus the thickness of the standoff layer.


Sensitivity Comparison
Based on these computational data, the surface and volume sensitivity of the PSW mode were compared
with corresponding values from several reported WGM sensing studies. Since the sensitivity of these
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sensing platforms is determined by several parameterssuch as the RI contrast, size of the resonator,
polarization mode, the interrogation wavelength, etc.all those parameters will be matched in the
following comparison. WGM sensing platforms such as microspheres [4, 6] and liquid-core optical ring
resonators [5] with aqueous samples for biological material sensing are often to be found in the literature.
Therefore, the comparison of such sensing scenarios will be the focus here. All the sensitivity data in the
following discussion are also listed in Table 1 for quick comparison.

Hanumegowda et al. reported volume sensitivity of an uncoated fused silica microsphere (RI = 1.45) with
a diameter of ~110 m in aqueous solution (RI = 1.333) [4]. The reported bulk RI sensitivity was about
30 nm/RI at wavelength ~980 nm, which can be converted to the normalized value NVS = 0.031. The
calculated bulk RI sensitivity of a PSW sensor of the same size was approximately NVS = 0.75, which is
about 24-fold over the reported microsphere volume sensitivity.

Surface sensitivity was not reported in Ref. 4, so the theoretically calculated data based on the
specification will be used in this comparison. First, a numeric microsphere model was established to
match the reported bulk RI sensitivity in Ref. 4, and then the same model was used to compute surface
sensitivity. The normalized surface sensitivity was used in order to provide fair comparisons among
different wavelengths. By using the standardized 1-nm analyte deposition with n A =0.117, the calculated
wavelength shift is about 9 pm (NSS = 7.9E-5). The PSW sensor at exactly the same condition has
demonstrated 122 pm shift (NSS = 1.1E-3), which was a 14-fold improvement over the uncoated
microsphere in terms of surface sensitivity. All computation results of PSW and microsphere sensors are
listed in the 2
nd
and 3
rd
column of Table 1, respectively.

Gaathon et al. have reported a sensitivity improvement scheme for microspheres by coating a thin layer of
high-RI material on the outer surface [6]. A 366-m fluorine-doped silica microsphere (RI = 1.43) coated
with sub-wavelength polystyrene (RI = 1.57) showed a bulk RI sensitivity improvement of about seven-
fold over the uncoated version in their study. An optimal coating thickness of ~340 nm was found for
that specific microsphere at a wavelength of 1310 nm. A numerical microsphere model that matched the
description was also established. The computed NVS of uncoated and coated microspheres were about
0.010 and 0.075, respectively, which confirms the reported seven-fold improvement. By comparison, the
PSW sensor (NVS = 0.75) has an advantage of approximately 75-fold over the uncoated sphere and about
10-fold over the coated microsphere in terms of the bulk refractive index sensitivity. The PSW advantage
shown in this case is even larger because of the weaker evanescent field produced by the larger
microsphere.

As for surface sensitivity, the PSW sensor has a NSS advantage of about 20-fold over uncoated larger
sphere. The microsphere coated with an optimized high RI layer does show significant surface sensitivity
improvement. Still, the optimized PSW sensor demonstrated more than a two-fold advantage over the
coated microsphere. The calculated results of uncoated and coated microspheres in Ref [6] are listed in
column 4 and 5 of Table 1, respectively.

A liquid core optical ring resonator (LCORR) reported in Ref. 5 uses the internal surface of a thin-wall
capillary as the sensing surface, which has the same advantage in terms of the simplified fluidics design
that is suggested for the PSW sensor. However, the sensitivity of the LCORR has been low even with
higher order modes because of practical limitations in achievable wall thicknesses. Therefore, PSW
sensors can easily demonstrate about 250- and 57-fold sensitivity advantages in the volume and surface
sensing modes, respectively. The calculated sensitivities of LCORR are reported in column 6 of Table 1.

PSW Uncoated 110-m
microsphere [4]
Uncoated 366-m
microsphere [6]
Coated 366-m
microsphere [6]
LCORR [5]
8
Volume (NVS) 0.750 0.031 0.010 0.075 0.003
(2
nd
order)
Surface (NSS) 1.1E-3 7.9E-5 5.6E-5 4.7E-4

1.9E-5
(2
nd
order)
PSW advantage -
-
vol: 24x
surf: 14x
vol: 75x
surf: 20x
vol: 10x
surf: 2x
vol: 250
surf: 57
Table 1. Sensitivity data and comparison to PSW sensor.

The sensitivity advantage of PSW sensors will be even greater for gaseous phase sensing due to the larger
refractive index contrast between the sample and resonator body. For the volume sensing mode, the NVS
of PSW will actually increase by another 25% (from 0.75 to 1.00), while traditional WGM sensors will
lose more than 90% of their already low sensitivity. For the surface sensing mode, the sensitivity
advantage of PSW sensors over traditional WGM sensors is expected to be more pronounced with
gaseous sample.

In addition to sensitivity, high-Q resonance is also essential to achieve low detection limits. Although
PSW sensors using metallic reflective walls may not have high-Q resonance at optical wavelength, the
ones using dielectric mirrors, such as the hollow core photonic bandgap fiber [11], have the potential to
provide a Q factor of ~1E5 at MIR wavelengths. With certain signal processing techniques, spectral
resolution as low as 20 femtometers at 1550 nm has been demonstrated with microring resonators, which
have a Q factor of only around 2E4 [3]. With high sensitivity and low spectral resolution, the detection
limit for bulk refractive index sensing as low as 1E-8 would be feasible by PSW sensors with moderate Q
factors.

Coupling Method
The excitation of a specific PSW mode is crucial to provide optimized sensitivity for intended sensing
modes for either volume or surface sensing applications. For volume sensing, the uncoated PSW would
be appropriate as the sensitivity is independent of the radial mode order. Different radial order modes,
however, provide different peak sensitivities at different sensing depths within the sensing volume.

Since light propagation inside a PSW resonator is a full wave, specific PSW modes in theory may be
excited by a free-space beam though a large pinhole. However, a wavelength-sized or larger pinhole
would introduce excessive out-coupling loss, resulting in low-Q resonance. Therefore, sub-wavelength
pinholes should be used to reduce such loss. As the pinhole becomes smaller, the diffraction effect
becomes significant. Because of the diffraction effect, the in-coupling light start to show a sinc-function-
profiled far-field pattern originated from a 1D slot. As the slot length reduces the far-field distribution
approaches to an isotropic pattern. Therefore, the single pinhole excitation has little control on the
specific mode due to the lack of beam directivity control. Since the in-coupling beam has its peak
intensity close to the small transmitted angle, higher order modes tend to be excited with a single pinhole
without regard to the local incident angle. Figure 4 shows an example of a high order PSW mode excited
by a focused Gaussian beam through a sub-wavelength pinhole. The resonator diameter is about 6. The
field distribution shown in the plot is calculated by an open source computation engine, MEEP, which is
based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and was developed by MIT. All the
simulated PSW resonances are assumed to have PEC walls unless otherwise specified.

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Figure 4. High order PSW mode excitation with a single pinhole.

In order to provide better mode excitation control, multiple holes will need to be used. When multiple
pinholes are fabricated along the circular circumference of the PSW resonator, the phase relationship
between the adjacent pinhole can be specified by the local incident angle of the input beam. These
multiple pinholes now work something like an arrayed slot antenna that has beam steering capability and
hence enables PSW mode excitation control. Another way to perceive the mode coupling control is to use
the phase-matching condition. The phase velocity of the PSW mode propagating around the
circumference can be matched by an oblique incidence beam through multiple pinholes, as is shown in
Error! Reference source not found..


d
u
d k
psw

u
RI = n
wd


Figure 5. Phase relationship between two coupling pinholes.

The phase matching condition is

... 2 , 1 , 0 , 2 ) sin(
0
= = N N d n k d k
wd psw
t u ,
(7)

where d is the distance between pinholes,
wd
n is the refractive index of the dielectric substrate of the
reflective wall, and
psw
k and
0
k are the wavenumbers of the PSW mode and free-space input beam,
respectively. By specifying the local incident angle,


|
|
.
|

\
|
=

wd
psw
n k
k
0
1
sin u with 0 = N , (8)

10
the PSW mode with wavenumber ,
w psw
r m k / = , can be selectively excited. Figure 6Error! Reference
source not found. shows the field distribution of the PSW
1
68
TE and
2
62
TE mode excited through 11
pinholes on a resonator with diameter of ~12. The pinhole size is about 0.125, with pinholes separated
by 0.4. The separation distance needs to be less than in order to eliminate counter-propagation and
grating modes. The distance between holes does not need to be uniform since the phase information is
maintained with the incident angle.



Figure 6. Computer simulation of PSW
1
68
TE (left) and
2
62
TE (right) mode excited through 11 pinholes.

The incident angles that favorably excite different PSW modes at around a 5-m wavelength are listed in
Table 2. Although the theoretically calculated incident angle may optimize the coupling efficiency, there
is quite a large tolerance on the incident angle observed in the simulation results with only 11 pinholes.
The trade-off between mode specificity and input angle tolerance can be controlled with the number of
pinholes. Since a planar surface is assumed in Eq. (8), the phase error due to a curved surface on the
PSW resonator needs to be considered when a large number of holes, small radius, or higher degree mode
control is required.

Mode Wavelength (nm) Incident angle (degree) Angular change
TE 68_1 4971.7 36.43 --
TE 62_2 4984.2 32.88 3.55
TE 57_3 5003.0 30.06 2.82
TE 53_4 4990.9 27.69 2.37
Table 2. Incident angles for various PSW mode excitations using multiple pinholes.

The fabrication of pinholes on the metallic reflector can be achieved with a laser ablation process. A
nano-second pulsed nitrogen laser has been used to prototype pinholes. Pinholes of several micrometers
can be easily fabricated with manual control. Smaller pinholes may be achieved with higher power,
shorter pulse, and a computer-controlled process. Due to the requirement for sub-wavelength pinholes,
the fabrication of PSW sensors for longer wavelengths will easier and more cost effective.

The purpose of using sub-wavelength pinholes is to reduce the coupling loss so that the resonance quality
factor can be maintained. Based on this objective, a partially removed reflective layer may also be used
to achieve the same purpose. Thinning down a patch of metallic reflector or a section of photonic crystal
wall are two examples of alternative methods to achieve PSW mode coupling.
11

Thanks to their low loss materials, hollow-core photonic bandgap (PBG) fibers are good candidates for
high-Q PSW resonators. The coupling port may be formed by partially removing the periodic multi-layer
structure using either chemical etching or laser ablation. The PSW mode resonance and coupling were
demonstrated with a FDTD simulation example. A PSW resonator was formed with a 10 bi-layer PBG
wall and inner diameter of 12. At the coupling port, the PBG wall was partially thinned with only about
four bi-layers remaining. The free space input beam was incident on the coupling port with a local
incident angle matched to the desired PSW mode. Figure 7 shows the simulation results of a PSW
1
63
TE
mode excited with specified conditions. The phase matching condition in Eq. (8) is still applied.
However, the directivity of transmitted input beam is less well defined than that produced by the multiple
pinholes, and hence the PSW mode excitation is less tightly controlled with this configuration.


Figure 7. Computer simulation of PSW
1
63
TE mode excited through a partially removed PBG wall

Sensor Interrogation
The interrogation methods of PSW sensors are similar to those for traditional WGM sensors. Either a
narrow-band tunable light source in conjunction with a wide-band light detector or a wide-band light
source with a narrow-band detector (spectrometer) may be used. In either case, the spectral position of
certain features in the resonant spectrum is monitored. The direct spectral shift of the spectral feature or
the intensity change due to the spectral shift is tracked and recorded as the sensorgram during the sensing
application.

Also similar to the WGM sensor, the interrogated PSW signal may be the through port or the drop
port, to use telecommunication terminology. The through port signal is formed by the interference
between the reflected input light and the out-coupling light from the resonator. Spectral dips or nulls will
be formed at the resonant wavelengths. The drop port signal, on the other hand, is simply the leakage of
the PSW resonant energy and consequently has spectral peaks at the resonance wavelengths. Even using
only a single coupling port, the through and drop port signals may be acquired through same coupling
spot but with different light collection angles. However, the exact morphology of the coupling port such
as arrayed pinholes or the defect of a PBG could shift the collection angle. For example, the reflection of
the input signal from the multiple pinholes is quite different from that reflected with a thinned PBG wall.
12
The signal collected around the specular reflection angle can be changed from through port to a mixing of
both through and drop port depending on the coupling port structure and the collection angle.

FDTD simulation was also used to demonstrate the interrogation of the PSW spectrum. Figure 8 shows
the computed signal spectra acquired at one sampling point outside of the resonator and another one
inside the resonator close to the wall. The top dotted trace is the field spectrum acquired close to the
specular reflection point and exhibiting the features of a through port spectrum, while the bottom solid
trace collected close to the inner wall showed the drop port spectrum with matched peaks. Either the
through port or the drop port spectrum acquired outside of resonator can be used for sensing applications.

Figure 8. The PSW through port (top trace) and in-cavity (bottom trace) resonant spectra simulated by
FDTD method.

Applications
Up to now, our discussion of PSW resonators has concentrated on sensing applications. However, PSW
resonators may also be of use as laser cavities. Due to the tunable peak location of the resonant field, the
gain medium can either be filled in the borehole or coated on the inner surface of a PSW resonator.
Similar to the previously described examples of volume and surface sensing modes, higher order modes
will be suitable for a PSW resonator filled with gain media, and lowest order modes with a standoff
coating layer will be optimal for the resonator with coated gain medium. In addition to using PSW
resonators as miniaturized lasing source, the PSW-based laser cavity also opens up new possibilities for
sensing applications. For example, lasing action has been observed by a modified PSW resonator coated
with a thin layer of amplifying fluorescence polymer (AFP) materials used for explosives detection on top
of the standoff layer. The still-open borehole allows air sample to flow through and interact with the
AFP. Since the AFP emission will be quenched in the presence of certain explosives, the nonlinear nature
of the lasing action can be taken advantage of to enhance the sensitivity of the explosive detection.

Volume Sensing Mode
In non-lasing related applications, a PSW resonator can be configured and optimized to operate in the
surface or volume sensing mode as illustrated in above discussion. Here we will use some examples to
further illustrate potential applications of PSW sensor in the volume and surface sensing mode. For
volume refractive index sensing applications, the bulk refractive index of the material flowing through the
borehole will be detected. As noted above, it has been theoretically demonstrated that a PSW sensor
inherently has the maximum bulk refractive index sensitivity. In addition to direct refractive index
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sensing, other parameters such as temperature, pressure, concentration, etc. also can be in-directly
detected due to their effect on the bulk refractive index.

When a thick layer of transparent dielectric layer is coated on the reflective wall of a PSW resonator, a
different volume sensing mode with its sensing zone focused inside the coated dielectric layer can be
achieved. The coating thickness is significant enough so that the majority of resonant energy resides in
the coated layer. The coating is also admissive to allow analytes to diffuse in and out of the coated layer
from the vapor or liquid phase sample flow. Polymeric or porous dielectric materials are potential coating
candidates. Such coatings may provide high sensitivity to a selective group of analytes with or without
additional sensitization process. PSW resonators with such thick coating layers may be used as detectors
for gas/liquid chromatography. Note that this configuration of PSW volume sensor with thick admissive
coating layer is different from the PSW surface sensor with thin coating layer.

PSW resonators also may be used as miniaturized long path-length absorption cells. The high-Q
resonance allows the interrogation light interacting with the sample in the borehole a long time to enhance
sensitivity. As was mentioned, a PSW resonator provides a unique advantage for the application in the
mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength, where most traditional WGM sensors have not been considered due to
excessive absorption loss from the resonator body. However, only very small amounts of PSW energy
resides inside the resonator body (evanescent field inside the reflective wall) so that the resonance quality
and the sensing performance will not be degraded significantly at MIR wavelengths. Such unique feature
enables PSW sensors to be used in this niche application.

Surface Sensing Mode
For surface sensing applications, the modified PSW sensor can provide more than an order of magnitude
of sensitivity improvement over traditional WGM sensors. A thin standoff layer of dielectric coating on
the reflective wall needs to be optimized according to the sensing application so that the maximum
surface sensitivity may be available on the sensing surface. In order to provide sensing specificity, the
sensing surface may be sensitized to physically adsorb or chemically bind certain analytes. Immunoassay
in biosensing applications is a typical example of surface sensing.

The inner sensing surface also can be sensitized with different analyte binders or sorbent materials to
detect different targets. Multiple pieces of differently sensitized PSW resonators can be connected to
achieve multiple target detection or array sensing capabilities. Since the PSW mode spreading width in
the longitudinal direction is around wavelength scale, high throughput screening tests may be
implemented with densely packed PSW sensing. The free-space interrogation scheme also allows
multiple sensing elements to be interrogated simultaneously via imaging techniques, which could provide
significant advantage in an array sensing scheme.

Since the sample flow is confined inside the PSW bore and the optical interrogation is conducted outside
of the PSW wall, the separation of sample path and optical path dramatically reduces the complexity of
system design, which allows the practical implementation of as PSW in sensing devices. There is no
additional need to design the flow channel or near-field optics for optical coupling and sensor
interrogation. Because the PSW excitation is achieved via free-space excitation, disposable sensing
element sand non-contacting sensor interrogation are possible. Such features may be critical in some
biosensing and medical diagnosis applications where contamination would be a great concern.

The advantages of PSW sensors can be summarized as:

1. Optimized sensitivity for either surface or volume sensing mode
2. Simplified fluidics and optics design
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3. Array sensing capability
4. Free-space coupling
5. Low-cost and disposable sensing elements
6. Niche sensing applications at longer wavelengths, such as mid-infrared or tera-hertz.

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