0000000000462527
AUTHOR
Michael Pöllinger
Ultrahigh-Q Tunable Whispering-Gallery-Mode Microresonator
Typical microresonators exhibit a large frequency spacing between resonances and a limited tunability. This impedes their use in a large class of applications which require a resonance of the microcavity to coincide with a predetermined frequency. Here, we experimentally overcome this limitation with highly prolate-shaped whispering-gallery-mode "bottle microresonators" fabricated from standard optical glass fibers. Our resonators combine an ultra-high quality factor of 360 million, a small mode volume, and near lossless fibre coupling, characteristic of whispering-gallery-mode resonators, with a simple and customizable mode structure enabling full tunability.
All-optical signal processing at ultra-low powers in bottle microresonators using the Kerr effect.
We present experimental results on nonlinear, ultra-low power photonics applications based on a silica whispering-gallery-mode microresonator. Our bottle microresonator combines an ultrahigh quality factor of Q10(8) with a small mode volume V. The resulting Q(2)/V-ratio is among the highest realized for optical microresonators and allows us to observe bistable behavior at very low powers. We report single-wavelength all-optical switching via the Kerr effect at a record-low threshold of 50 microW. Moreover, an advantageous mode geometry enables the coupling of two tapered fiber waveguides to a bottle mode in an add-drop configuration. This allows us to route a CW optical signal between both …