Development of Optical Sensors Based on Spherical Microparticles

The aim of this research proposal is to develop microsensors to based on resonant properties of spherical dielectric particles to sense a variety of chemical and physical properties of gas and liquid phases. These microsensors make use of extremely sensitive dependence of resonant amplitudes, widths, and spectral positions on the index of refraction, the aborption coefficient and the size of a spherical microresonator. As a first step the temperature, humidity and mercury vapor sensors will be developed.