High-Q enhancement of attractive and repulsive optical forces between coupled whispering-gallery-mode resonators

We have calculated the optically-induced force between coupled high-Q whispering gallery modes of microsphere resonators. Attractive and repulsive forces are found, depending whether the bi-sphere mode is symmetric or antisymmetric. The magnitude of the force is linearly proportional to the total power in the spheres and consequently linearly enhanced by Q. Forces on the order of 100 nN are found for Q= 10(8), large enough to cause displacements in the range of 1 mu m when the sphere is attached to a fiber stem with spring constant 0.004 N/m. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.