High-Q Fabry-Pérot Cavity Based on Micro-Lens Array for Refractive Index Sensing

Abstract

Fabry-Pérot (FP) microcavities have attracted tremendous attention in recent years due to their favorable optical characteristics of the high quality (Q) factor and small mode volume. In this work, we presented a novel approach that utilized the soft lithography and imprinting technology to incorporate the convex micro-lens array structure into the FP (FP-lens) cavity. A strong mode-profile restriction of the micro-lens simultaneously reduced the mode volume and enhanced the Q factor, exhibiting high tolerance to non-parallelism of mirrors compared with that of the plane-plane FP (PP-FP) microcavities. In the experiment, the Q factor of the FP-lens cavity was measured to be 8.145×10⁴, which exhibited a 5.6-fold increase than that of the PP-FP cavity. Furthermore, we experimentally measured the refractive index sensing performance of the FP-lens cavity with the sensitivity of 594.7 nm/RIU and a detection limit of 4.26×10⁻⁷ RIU. On the basis of this superior sensing performance, the FP-lens cavity has the great potential for applications in biosensors.

Keywords

Fabry-Pérot cavity / micro-lens array / soft lithography and imprinting technology / refractive index sensing

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