We report on the coherent coupling of whispering gallery modes (WGM) in a photonic molecule formed from two melamine-formaldehyde spherical microcavities with a thin shell of CdTe nanocrystals. Utilizing a microporous polymer structure to orient the photonic molecule, we have excited the photonic molecule both on and off axis. This controllable geometry has allowed the observation of an off-axis fine structure that consists of very sharp peaks resulting from the removal of the WGM degeneracy with respect to the azimuthal quantum number m. The mode splittings are in very good agreement with theory.

We report on the coherent coupling of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in a photonic molecule formed from two melamine-formaldehyde spherical microcavities coated with a thin shell of light-emitting CdTe nanocrystals (NCs). Utilizing different excitation conditions, the splitting of the WGM resonances originating from bonding and antibonding branches of the photonic states is observed, and fine structure consisting of very sharp peaks resulting from lifting of the WGM degeneracy has been detected. Time-resolved measurements showed a slight increase in the spontaneous emission rate of NCs in a photonic molecule when compared to the spontaneous emission rate for NCs coating a single microsphere.

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We report on the coherent coupling of whispering gallery modes (WGM) in a photonic molecule formed from two melamine-formaldehyde spherical microcavities coated with a thin shell of light-emitting CdTe nanocrystals (NCs). Utilizing different excitation conditions the splitting of the WGM resonances originating from bonding and anti-bonding branches of the photonic states is observed and fine structure consisting of very sharp peaks resulting from lifting of the WGM degeneracy has been detected. Timeresolved measurements showed a slight increase in the spontaneous emission rate of NCs in a photonic molecule when compared to the spontaneous emission rate for NCs coating a single microsphere.

We present a detailed study of the localized coupled-cavity modes in a photonic molecule formed from two dielectric spherical microcavities with CdTe nanocrystals, which show a multi-peak narrowband modal structure resulting from lifting of the mode degeneracy with respect to the azimuthal quantum number. The waveguiding through the coupled microcavities and wavelength switching effect is demonstrated. The feasibility of photonic molecules as the basis for a multi-channel, wavelength-tunable optical delay device is analysed.