Highly sensitive temperature measurements with liquid-core microbubble resonators

The thermal shifting of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in a microbubble resonator is investigated. The thermal shift rate is determined for different modes when the core of the microbubble is filled with air, water and ethanol. Sensitivities as high as 100 GHz/K (0.2 nm/K at wavelength of 775 nm) are observed when the microbubble core is filled with ethanol. This is the largest thermal shift rate reported for a WGM resonator. We also show that thermal behavior of the WGMs in a thin-shelled, air-filled microbubble is different from a solid microsphere. The measured shifts are compared against finite element model simulations. Q-factors for the higher order modes are typically 10 ⁵, equivalent to a measurement resolution of 8.5 mK.