Experimental Demonstration of Temperature Sensing with Packaged Glass Bottle Microresonators

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) glass bottle microresonators are potential highly sensitive structures for a variety of physical and bio-chemical sensing applications. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the practical use of glass bottle resonators as temperature sensors. The basic parameters, such as WGM resonance wavelengths, free spectral ranges, and Q factors, have been investigated by coupling light from a tapered fiber to the bottle structure. We show the spectral characteristics of the WGMs by choosing different bottle dimensions and taper diameters. For practical measurements, a robust 3D-printed package that includes the bottle resonator and the tapered fiber has been proposed. The packaged bottle has a central diameter D_c = 207 µm and a length L = 300 µm. Temperature sensing experiments were also performed. A linear response of the WGM shifts as a function of the temperature is confirmed. The fitted experimental data indicate a temperature sensitivity of 10.5 pm/K at λ ~ 1550 nm, resulting in a limit of detection of 0.06 K. These values can be compared with values reported for other WGM resonators. Additionally, bottle resonators are made with simple splicing methods and their assembly method can be easily defined due to large coupling tolerances.