1 of 6) 1600613 emitting particles with curved or reflecting surfaces can act as photonic resonators if the surface acts as mirror and allow multiple total internal reflections (TIR) of light. Further, during TIR, due to light waves interference, the particle might generate optical whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonances [13] and the resultant resonance modes can be seen as a series of intensity amplified sharp lines (modes) in the FL spectrum. Although, organic particles self-assembled from dye molecules are known to display WGM effect, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] to our knowledge no attempts have been made to investigate the photonic properties of a wellknown naturally occurring medicinal dye namely, curcumin, which is known for its PDT applications. Therefore, this paper unravels the hidden "photonic" side of microparticles composed of CURM derivatives (Figure 1). We present here large area self-assembly of CURM into nearly perfect µ-spheres with a narrow size distribution, which display enhanced WGMs in the visible electromagnetic region down to single particle level. Further to shift the resonance lines toward NIR region, CURM-BF was self-assembled into photonic particles. The polarization resolved microscopy revealed the polarized nature of the vis-NIR emissions from these medicinal particles. Additionally for the first time, confocal FL lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) studies on the CURM and CURM-BF resonators using a time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) technique revealed a remarkable resonator size dependent FL lifetime values.Earlier in 1982, Tonnesen et al. have reported the first crystal structure (P2/n) of CURM. [22] Latter, many groups have reinvestigated its crystal structure. Recently, Nangia and co-workers have added two new crystalline polymorphs and an amorphous phase of CURM. [23] It has been found that CURM exists in β-keto-enol tautomeric form in all crystal structures. X-ray structure analysis revealed that various phenol OH···O (≈2.2 Å) and CH···O (≈2.5 Å) intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions play a key role in the solid state molecular packing of CURM. [22] In our experiment, to prepare spherical amorphous phase CURM particles suitable for photonic applications, both CURM and CURM-BF [7] were used (for chemical structure, see Figure 1). For the self-assembly studies, a methanol solution of CURM dye (1 mg mL −1 ) was subjected to ultrasonication for 30 s for complete dissolution and kept for 15 min without any disturbance at room temperature. Latter, two to three drops of the CURM solution was drop casted on a glass cover slip under slow evaporation condition to generate nano-/microparticles. Similar procedure was followed for CURM-BF self-assembly. To investigate the formation mechanism of spherical microparticles, solvent evaporation from the solution (three drops) at different temperatures