Project final report in Turkish can be accessed from this link.
With this project all the experimental setups required for ultrahigh resolution spectroscopy of microdroplets with tapered optical fibers have been built. These include: A fiber tapering setup, and a home-built inverted microscope which enables controlled positioning of a tapered fiber next to a microdroplet. With these setups, optical coupling between a tapered optical fiber and a microdroplet has been achieved and quality factors more than 10^6 have been measured for whispering gallery modes of glycerol-water microdroplets on a superhydrophobic surface. Using traditional fluorescence microscopy, fundamental mechanical resonances of microdrolets standing on a superhydrophobic surface have also been characterized and the results have been compared with existing analytical models. Our studies using both vertical and horizontal vibrations showed that the measurement of the mechanical resoncance frequency can serve as a novel method for contact angle determination of microdroplets standing on a superhydrophobic surface. This new mothod has been immediately accepted by the international community. Up to now, project results have been published in two international journal poublications. One other publication is currently in preparation and will soon be submitted to an international journal.
Keywords: Whispering gallery mode, superhydrophobic surface, tapered optical fiber, optical spectroscopy
@kirazlab