Microlaser Sensor Measures Tiny Particles (IMAGE)

Washington University in St. Louis

Microlaser Sensor Measures Tiny Particles

Caption

Whispering-gallery microlasers can count and measure nano-scale synthetic or biological particles. As this conceptual illustration shows, a particle disturbs the lasing "mode" to split into two frequencies (shown here as two different colors) and the frequency split acts a ruler that allows the particle to be measured. The inset at the top right shows a particle landing on the microlaser (a torus supported by a pedestal). Lina He, a graduate student in electrical and systems engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and her co-workers demonstrated that the microlasers can detect particles 10 nanometers in radius. Their resolution limit is about one nanometer.

Credit

J. Zhu, L. He, S. K. Ozdemir, and L. Yang/WUSTL

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