Abstract

We recently reported the time-domain observation of whispering gallery mode (WGM) propagation for picosecond optical pulses and macroscopic glass spheres.^1,2 By analogy to the well-known acoustic phenomenon, optical WGMs propagate along the surface of spheres with high quality factors (Q) allowing optical path lengths many times the sphere diameter. The optical pulse duration (2 ps) was short relative to the equatorial round trip time and the detector response; thus, resolution of a series of individual output pulses was achieved, each corresponding to a single traverse of the sphere circumference.

© 2000 Optical Society of America