High-Sensitivity Detection of Changes in Local Refractive Index and Absorption by Analyzing WGM Microlaser Emission...

Microlasers have been widely used in biosensing applications because of their high sensitivity to changes in local conditions. However, in most applications, the sensitivity limit is not dictated by the microlaser line width but rather by the much worse spectral resolution of the detection system, typically a grating spectrometer. To address this issue, we built and characterized a two-dimensional (2D) dispersion spectrometer with a virtually imaged phase array etalon and a diffraction grating. The spectrometer can analyze microlaser emission with a spectral resolution of better than 0.300 pm, which enables high-precision measurements of spectral shifts in laser peak emission wavelength and sufficient resolution to detect changes in peak line width. Using commercial fluorescent microspheres as the microlasers, the 2D dispersion spectrometer demonstrated a detection limit for the refractive index change of a liquid medium of 1.37 × 10^-5 RIU and a detection limit for absorption changes of less than 0.02 cm^-1.