Research report 2007 - Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
Micro Photonics: Light-induced forces, frequency combs und biological sensors on a chip
Authors
Kippenberg, Tobias; Schließer, Albert; Del¿Haye, Pascal; Arcizet, Olivier
Departments
Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements (Dr. Tobias Kippenberg)
MPI für Quantenoptik, Garching
Summary
Optical microcavities store resonant light for millions of round-trips. The high sensitivity of the resonance condition enables the direct observation of Brownian motion and the detection of biological molecules. The resonant power enhancement gives rise to novel nonlinear processes due to light forces exerted on the resonator as well as an extreme form of the Kerr nonlinearity, which transforms a continuous-wave laser into a frequency comb.