Righini , Giancarlo, Dumeige , Yannick, Féron , Patrice, Ferrari , Maurizio, Nunzi Conti , Gualtiero, Ristic , Davor, Soria , Silvia, MDF-Lab ( MDF-Lab, CNR-IFAC ), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [Roma] ( CNR ) -Istituto di Fisica Applicata 'Nello Carrara' (IFAC), Fonctions Optiques pour les Technologies de l'informatiON ( FOTON ), Télécom Bretagne-École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie ( ENSSAT ) -Université de Rennes 1 ( UR1 ), Université de Rennes ( UNIV-RENNES ) -Université de Rennes ( UNIV-RENNES ) -Institut National des Sciences Appliquées ( INSA ) -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ), Caratterizzazione e Sviluppo di Materiali per la Fotonica e l'Optoelecttronica ( CSMFO ), CNR Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie [Trento] ( IFN ), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [Roma] ( CNR ) -Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [Roma] ( CNR ), Convention CNES 103653-00, SHYRO, Istituto di Fisica Applicata 'Nello Carrara' (IFAC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [Roma] (CNR), Fonctions Optiques pour les Technologies de l'informatiON (FOTON), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (ENSSAT)-Télécom Bretagne, Caratterizzazione e Sviluppo di Materiali per la Fotonica e l'Optoelecttronica (CSMFO), CNR Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie [Trento] (IFN), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [Roma] (CNR)-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [Roma] (CNR), National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (ENSSAT)-Télécom Bretagne-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
nombre de pages 54; International audience; Confinement of light into small volumes has become an essential requirement for photonic devices; examples of this trend are provided by optical fibers, integrated optical circuits, semiconductor lasers, and photonic crystals. Optical dielectric resonators supporting Whispering Gallery Modes (WGMs) represent another class of cavity devices with exceptional properties, like extremely small mode volume, very high power density, and very narrow spectral linewidth. WGM are now known since more than 100 years, after the papers published by John William Strutt (LordRayleigh), but their importance as unique tools to study nonlinear optical phenomena or quantum electrodynamics, and for application to very low- threshold microlasers as well as very sensitive microsensors, has been recognized only in recent years. This paper presents a review of the field of WGM resonators, which exist in several geometrical structures like cylindrical optical fibers, microspheres, microfiber coils, microdisks, microtoroids, photonic crystal cavities, etc. up to the most exotic structures, such as bottle and bubble microresonators. For the sake of simplicity, the fundaments of WGM propagation and most of the applications will be described only with reference to the most common structure, i.e. microspherical resonators.