Microresonators
made of germanium.
These may have a bigger
impact on your future than you think.
Some people do things so smart and difficult that it's hard to see what they might have to do with you and me in this world, so we just shrug our shoulders
.
But this is usually the wrong reaction
.
What if you had a simple gadget at home that could tell you why you felt so bad?
"Our microresonators are 100 times
better than previous resonators used in the longwave infrared spectrum.
"
What if this little device could detect in a short period of time whether you had the coronavirus or flu, or even find out that you have diabetes without your knowledge? The device can solve all these problems without requiring you to go to a doctor or lab
.
This technology could become a reality in a few years, and electrical engineers were among those who created this gadget, which contains a key component
known as the Whispering Gallery Mode microresonator.
New technologies are providing better optical sensors, which are important for electronics, including devices
that use light to analyze chemicals.
"We have built the lowest-loss whispered corridor mode microresonator
for longwave infrared spectroscopy.
Because longwave infrared spectroscopy provides clear information about chemicals, it opens up new possibilities for sensing applications," says
researcher Dingding Ren from the Department of Electronic Systems at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
We will discuss in detail what a microresonator
is later in the article.
But first back to Ren
.
He and his colleagues have developed a new whispering gallery-mode microresonator that can store specific wavelengths of light
in resonance for longer.
"Our microresonators are about 100 times better than previous resonators used for longwave infrared spectroscopy," Dingding Ren said
.
"It can retain light up to 100 times longer than previous versions, which amplifies the internal light field and makes nonlinear processes easier, such as the generation
of frequency combs.
"
More efficient storage of light waves in the infrared portion of the spectrum is good news for several new technologies, particularly for particle sensing and spectrochemistry identification, which can analyze gas/fluid samples to check for viruses, bacteria, and other potentially harmful substances
.
The new microresonators mean scientists can use these devices to develop broadband frequency combs
in the longwave infrared spectrum.
What could these be?
A frequency comb is a laser light source whose spectrum consists of a series of discrete, equidistant frequency lines
.
They can be found in many places, such as your GPS, atomic clocks, and fiber optic devices
used in phones and computers.
If there is a broadband frequency comb in the longwave infrared spectrum, the technique also opens the door
to analyzing several chemicals simultaneously.
"When it comes to measuring longwave infrared spectroscopy, this technology is still in
its infancy.
But our improvements make it possible to identify several different chemicals
in real time in the near future.
”
Such spectrometers already exist, like the Fourier transform infrared interferometer, but they are too big and expensive for hospitals and institutions with large budgets to afford.
Other, slightly simpler machines may be able to analyze some chemicals, but not many at the same time—unlike what is possible with new technologies
.
Ren works closely with
Professor David Burghoff of the University of Notre Dame and his colleagues.
Ren said: "The competition in this space is very fierce
.
This new microresonator is manufactured with germanium
.
This material may sound peculiar, but it was used in the world's first transistors back in 1947, before silicon took over the transistor market
.
We can compare
the microresonator with the sound in the whisper gallery of St.
Paul's Cathedral in London.
Today, germanium is often used in the optical lenses of sensors and infrared cameras, so it is neither particularly rare nor expensive
.
These are also advantages
when theories are introduced to the market.
A microresonator is an optical cavity that stores a high light field
in a small volume.
They can be made into trajectories or disk geometry, but they are usually microscale in size, similar to the thickness
of a single hair.
Light travels in circles within the microresonator, so the light field is amplified
.
"We can compare
the microresonator to the sound in the whispering gallery of St.
Paul's Cathedral in London," Ren said.
This elliptical gallery produced a famous phenomenon
.
You can whisper at one end of the room and the person on the other end of the room can hear you, even though they usually can't hear you at this distance
.
Sound waves are amplified by the shape of rooms and walls, and this is how light waves behave
in microresonators.
If you want to better understand this phenomenon, you can read the research article
.
The link can be found
at the bottom of the article.
