White Light Cavities (WLCs) are characterized by a resonance which fulfills the phase condition over a band of frequencies. This is in contrast to conventional cavities in which this condition is satisfied at discreet frequencies (known as the resonance frequencies). This non-conventional property can be obtained by inserting a dispersive element into the cavity while tailoring the parameters of the cavity and the element in a manner where the frequency dependent phase accumulation of the empty cavity is cancelled out by the negative phase slope of the dispersive element. The utilization of this WLC phenomenon was suggested for various important applications in sensing and communication.
Two types of WLC devices have been studied:
- A WLC based fiber laser sensor which utilizes Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) for gain. This device was shown to exhibit great sensitivity enhancement compared with non-WLC BFL sensors.
- A WLC based Coherent Perfect Absorber (CPA). This micron scale device, which we proposed and analyzed, is characterized by a much wider absorption spectrum compared with non-WLC CPAs while still maintaining their small footprint.
