Monitoring and identifying pendant droplets in microbottle resonators

Optofluidic resonators are capable of characterizing various fluidic media. Here, we propose an optofluidic microbottle resonator (OFMBR) that is applied to generate pendant droplets, whose maximum mass is related to the liquid surface tension. Mass and type of droplets forming along the OFMBR stem can be monitored in real time by spectrum variation. As a pendant droplet grows, increased droplet gravity introduces a decreased coupling gap and compressive force between the tapered fiber and OFMBR, leading to a resonance wavelength shift. The operation mechanism of the proposed sensors is validated by theoretical simulation and experimental results. From the experimental spectra, a liquid mass sensor with maximum sensitivity of -334 pm/mg is obtained, and distilled water and alcohol can be identified. This scheme provides a new thread for droplet generation as well as fluidic properties characterization. (C) 2022 Chinese Laser Press