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Energy Procedia 9 (2011) 1 6

9th Eco-Energy and Materials Science and Engineering Symposium

Micro Stirling Engine Controlled by Light

S. Pipatsarta,*, S. Kamoldiloka and P. P. Yupapina
a

Nanoscale Science and Engineering Research Alliance(NSERA), Faculty of Science

King Mongkuts Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok 10520, Thailand

Abstract
This paper proposes a new technique for a micro Stirling engine operation using leaky light resonant or whispering
gallery modes (WGMs) in a nano-waveguide, in which the nano-waveguide is designed and configured by a nanoring
resonator. By using the Optiwave programming based on Finite Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method, an
InGaAsP/InP nanoring resonator was designed and simulated. The simulation results obtained have shown that the
leaky light resonant modes can be controlled by the ring radius variations, whereas the maximum resonant peak of
nanoring resonator is occurred at the inner and outer ring radii of 0.775 and 1.55 m respectively. The maximum
peak intensity of the nanoring resonator is 12000 W/m2. Finally, the use of leaky light mode resonant peak of the
center nanoring resonator for micro-Stirling engine is discussed in details.
2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of [P.P. Yupapin]
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of CEO of Sustainable Energy System,

Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT).

Keywords: Leaky light mode; Whispering gallery mode; Nanoring resonator; Stirling engine; Micro engine

1. Introduction
Now we introduce the new devices known as a ring resonator which is in the circular form or
planar waveguide which was introduced by Yupapin et al. [1, 2].The ring resonator was used to the solar
energy conversion [3] and this paper the ring resonator was used to convert the leaky light intensity into
thermal energy. We call the leaky light mode or whispering gallery mode (WGMs). The study of WGMs
was started almost a century ago with the work of Lord Rayleigh, who studied propagation of sound over
a curved gallery surface [46]. The first observation of WGMs in optics can be attributed to solid-state
WGM lasers. Laser action was studied in Sm: CaF2 crystalline resonators [7]. The size of the resonators
was in the millimeter range. Pulsed laser operation due to complete internal reflection in a ruby ring at
room temperature has been observed [8]. Short-lived transient oscillations rather than spikes in the laser

1876-6102 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of CEO of Sustainable Energy System, Rajamangala
University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT). Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2011.09.001

S. Pipatsart et al. / Energy Procedia 9 (2011) 1 6

output were explained by assuming a WGM Q of 108 to 109. In liquid resonators, WGMs were first
observed by elastic light scattering from spherical dielectric particles [9, 10]. It was recognized that
WGMs could help in measurements of spherical particle size, shape, refractive index, and temperature [11,
12]. WGMs were used to determine the diameter of the optical fiber [13]. The strong influence of WGMs
on fluorescence and Raman scattering was recognized in [1416] and [1719], respectively. Laser action
in a droplet was first studied in [20, 21].
Recent technological advances in micro-and nano-photonics have boosted the realization and testing
of extremely high Q-factor optical resonator systems. Much interest is focused on two dimensional
whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonators [22, 23], such as micro-disks [24], rings [25] and toroids
[26]; these are chip-integrable and offer a wide spectrum of possible applications ranging from microdisk
(m-disk) lasers [27, 28] to sensing [29]. In this paper, the whispering gallery modes were controlled by
varies radius of nano-ring resonator, which may be suitable for small heat source applications.
2. Leaky Light Mode in a Ring Resonator
Light propagating in a straight waveguide is confined via total internal reflection (TIR) by two
dielectric interfaces (along one dimension) to a region of high refractive index. Light propagating in a
curved waveguide is still guided via TIR at the outer interface, but no longer demands an inner interface
to complete the confinement. Elimination of the inner boundary leaves a dielectric disk or ring which
supports whispering gallery modes. These modes consist of azimuthally propagating fields guided by TIR
at the dielectric interface and optical inertia which prevents the field from penetrating inward beyond a
fixed radius. Mathematically, a whispering gallery mode is a solution of the Helmholtz equation in a
curved coordinate geometry. Attention is restricted to a cylindrical geometry appropriate for the analysis
of planar disk and ring resonators. The Helmholtz equation (2+ k2) Ez = 0, written in cylindrical
coordinates the whispering gallery modes is [30]
w2 1 w

1 w2
(1)
2 
 k 2 E z (r , M ) 0
 2
2
w
r
r
w
w
r
r
M

Where r is the radial distance, M is the angle measured counterclockwise from the polar axis to the ray
from the origin.
The equation can be the method of separation of variable by which it is split into two equations for
radial and azimuthally dependence. An integer parameter m is introduced which connect the two
equations and physically correspond to the number of optical cycles the field under goes when completing
one revolution around the ring. The azimuthally equation takes the form
w2

(2)
2  m 2 E z (M ) 0
w
M

and has solution are complex exponentials,

E z (M )

e rimM

The radial equation is the Bessels function

w2
1 w
m2
2 
 k 2  2 E z (r )
r wr
r
wM

(3)

Solutions of Bessels equation are the Bessels function of the first J m and the second Ym kind. Because
the second kind function is singular at the origin, only the first kind function is retained inside the ring.
Outside the ring both functions are well behave and must be retained. The Hankel functions are linear
superposition of two Bessel function solutions corresponding to outward,

( 2)
m

H m(1)

J m  iYm and inward

J m  iYm propagating cylindrical waves. The analysis of wave arriving at the resonator from

S. Pipatsart et al. / Energy Procedia 9 (2011) 1 6

the radial horizon is not considers here and thus only the Hankel function of the first kind,

H m(1) is

retained. Thus, the appropriate solution for the radial field dependence both interior (r<R) and exterior
(r>R) to the dielectric ring are

Ez ( r  R )

~
Am J m (k1r )
~
Bm H m(1) (k2r )

Ez ( r ! R )
~
Here k j is complex propagation constant

(4)
(5)

The complete axial electric field interior and exterior to the ring is constructed from the azimuthal
and radial solutions including the boundary condition at the interface (r = R) which forces the tangential
electric field to be continuous:

E z (r , M )
E z (r , M )

~
~
Am J m (k1r )e i ( r mM Zt )

~
~
J m (k1 R)
~
Am (1) ~
H m(1) (k 2 r )e i ( r mM Zt )
H m (k 2 R)

(6)
(7)

3. Micro Stirling Engine Concept

The integrated optical device material used is InGaAsP/InP, in which the refractive index of material
is 3.34, while the cladding of material is air, with the light source center wavelength is at 1.55 m, the
peak power laser input of 10 W which was launched into the system (a nanoring resonator).The device is
double ring as shown in Figure 1. The double ring radii were varied by (i) inner ring radius from 0.60 m
to 0.95 m and (ii) the outer ring radius was fixed at 1.55 m. The width of resonator was 0.3 Pm. All
design and simulation results were obtained by using the Optiwave programming. In this simulation, the
leaky light mode outside the rings is neglected, while inside ones can be formed the WGMs resonant peak
at the ring center. By varying the inner ring radius, the double ring resonator can also be formed the leaky
light mode peak intensity. The intensity will be increased and sharpened. The double ring resonator with
outer ring radius of 1.55 Pm and inner ring radius of 0.775 Pm give the maximum leaky light mode peak
intensity. The 3-D plot of the peak intensity is as shown in Fig. 2. Results obtained have shown that the
highest center peak intensity of the double nanoring can be useful for micro-Stirling engine, which is
shown in Fig.3.

Fig. 1. A schematic diagram of the double nano-ring resonator.

S. Pipatsart et al. / Energy Procedia 9 (2011) 1 6

Fig. 2. Leaky light mode in the double nano-ring resonator, with the inner ring radius of 0.775 Pm, the
outer ring radius of 1.55Pm (maximum center peak intensity).

(a)

(b)
Fig.3 (a) a schematic of micro-Stirling engine using a nano-heat source, (b) heat source (nano-ring
resonator)

S. Pipatsart et al. / Energy Procedia 9 (2011) 1 6

Fig-4. The idealized Stirling engine cycle

Fig. 3 [31] shows the concept of the micro-Stirling engine. The piston and the displacer are
mechanically connected with a spring. A small magnet is situated inside the displacer, and the heating
wall and the cooling wall are made of mild steel. Liquid nitrogen contained in cooling wall. The spring
and the magnet comprise as a snap action mechanism, which maintains phase difference between piston
and displacer, sustaining the reciprocating movement even at relatively low frequency. The idealized
Stirling cycle consists of four thermodynamic processes acting on the working fluid as shown in Fig. 4,
where, (1) Isothermal Expansion, where the expansion-space and associated heat exchanger are
maintained at a constant high temperature, and the gas undergoes near-isothermal expansion absorbing
heat from the hot source (high intensity peak of leaky light mode), (2) Constant-Volume (known as
isovolumetric or isochoric) heat-removal, the gas is passed through the regenerator, where it cools
transferring heat to the regenerator for use in the next cycle, (3) Isothermal Compression, where the
compression space and associated heat exchanger are maintained at a constant low temperature so the gas
undergoes near-isothermal compression rejecting heat to the cold sink (liquid nitrogen), and (4) ConstantVolume (known as isovolumetric or isochoric) heat-addition, where the gas passes back through the
regenerator where it recovers much of the heat transferred in 2, heating up on its way to the expansion
space.
3. Conclusion
The WGMs in nanoring resonator could be occurred if the ring radius is satisfied the specific
condition, which can be controlled or amplified by varying the ring radii. According to the simulation
results we can apply the high intensity whispering gallery modes for micro-Stirling engine operation by
the integrated optic system, in which the performance of micro-Stirling engine can be controlled by laser
or ring parameter control.

S. Pipatsart et al. / Energy Procedia 9 (2011) 1 6

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