Abstract

A variational method was applied to find the wave function of a transverse-electric whispering gallery mode (WGM) in a spheroidal resonator of a uniform refractive index (RI). It was found that the electric field is tangential to the resonator surface as in the sphere, up to the linear order of the ellipticity. Using the wave function, the resonance shift due to adsorption of a thin, uniform dielectric layer onto the surface and the shift by a uniform RI change in the surroundings were evaluated in the perturbation theory. The shift by the RI change is not affected by the ellipticity, but the shift by the layer adsorption now depends on the meridional order. However, the correction is not large unless the ellipticity is large and the meridional order is away from the one for the equatorial mode of WGM.

©2012 Optical Society of America

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