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Controlled Coupling of Counterpropagating Whispering-Gallery Modes by a Single Rayleigh Scatterer: A Classical Problem in a Quantum Optical Light

A. Mazzei, S. Götzinger, L. de S. Menezes, G. Zumofen, O. Benson, and V. Sandoghdar
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 173603 – Published 26 October 2007
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Abstract

We present experiments where a single subwavelength scatterer is used to examine and control the backscattering induced coupling between counterpropagating high-Q modes of a microsphere resonator. Our measurements reveal the standing wave character of the resulting symmetric and antisymmetric eigenmodes, their unbalanced intensity distributions, and the coherent nature of their coupling. We discuss our findings and the underlying classical physics in the framework common to quantum optics and provide a particularly intuitive explanation of the central processes.

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  • Received 23 May 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.173603

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

A. Mazzei1, S. Götzinger2, L. de S. Menezes3, G. Zumofen2, O. Benson1,*, and V. Sandoghdar2,†

  • 1Nano-Optics, Humboldt University, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, D-10117 Berlin, Germany
  • 2Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 3Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901 Recife-PE, Brazil

  • *oliver.benson@physik.hu-berlin.de
  • vahid.sandoghdar@ethz.ch

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 17 — 26 October 2007

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