title: Characterizing whispering-gallery modes in microspheres by direct observation of the optical standing-wave pattern in the near field.
abstract: We demonstrated the use of a near-field probe to map the evanescent field of an optical standing wave in a fused-silica whispering-gallery mode microresonator. The periodicity of the observed standing wave allows us to estimate accurately the radial mode number of the whispering-gallery mode resonance that is being excited. We find that the use of a fiber half-coupler to excite these resonances in fused-silica microspheres results in only the lowest radial mode numbers' being strongly excited, as predicted.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dubreuil
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sandoghdar
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hare
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lefèvre-Seguin
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Raimond
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Haroche