Optical Modal Features of an Optofluidic VECSEL-Based Microparticle Sensor: Comparison of Experiments and Simulations

Abstract--Recently, we reported the first successful fabrication of a marker-free microparticle detector with a unique working principle: when a particle is introduced into the cavity of an electrically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser, both the change of electrical operation as well as optical output parameters can be directly monitored, which enables phenotyping of properties, such as particle volume and refractive index. In the present contribution, we investigate this mechanism by numerical modeling of the wave-optical characteristics of the sensor.