Whispering gallery modes in surface-fixated fluorescent polystyrene microbeads are studied in view of their capability of sensing changes in the refractive index of the beads' environment by exposing them to water/glycerol mixtures of varying composition. The mode positions are analyzed by simultaneous fitting for mode number, bead radius, and environmental index. Down to a diameter of 8 μm, the sensor response follows the index of the bulk solution very well. For smaller bead sizes, some deviations occur, in particular for fluid indices not too different from that of water, which might be attributed to the presence of the substrate.
Keywords: biosensing; cavity modes; optical sensing; refractive index sensing; whispering gallery modes.