High-Q microresonators unveil quantum rare events

Classical linear optics posits that at sufficiently low intensities, light propagation in dielectric media is governed solely by their linear susceptibilities. Here, we demonstrate a departure from this paradigm in high-quality (high-Q) microresonators, where prolonged photon confinement enables rare quantum electrodynamical (QED) events, mediated by the quantum vacuum, to embed distinctive Raman signatures of the coupled analyte into the resonator's linear transmission spectrum despite their absence from linear susceptibility. We further show that increasing the amount of adsorbed analyte sample amplifies these Raman fingerprints well above typical noise floors, rendering them experimentally accessible with state-of-the-art photonic architectures and detection schemes. This weak-coupling cavity QED effect offers unique routes to harness extended photon lifetimes and constrained geometries for leveraging vacuum fluctuations in next-generation photonic technologies for chemical and biological sensing and high-precision optical spectroscopy.