Photonic nanojets and whispering gallery modes in smooth and corrugated micro-cylinders under point-source illumination

Abstract

We numerically investigate the generation of photonic nanojets (PNJs) and the excitation of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) supported by both smooth and corrugated dielectric micro-cylinders under point-source illumination. Results show that the location of the point-source defines the location and properties of PNJs, whereas stability of WGMs exists in smooth micro-cylinders but vanishes in corrugated ones. It is shown that the location of the point-source acts as an additional degree of freedom for controlling the characteristics of the generated PNJs for both smooth and corrugated dielectric micro-cylinders. Furthermore, the influence of the point-source location on the stability of the excited WGMs was diminished for the smooth micro-cylinders, while being fully pronounced for their corrugated counterparts.