Optical frequency conversion in silica-whispering-gallery-mode microspherical resonators.

High quality factor whispering-gallery-mode microresonators are ideally suited for nonlinear optical interactions. We analyze, experimentally and theoretically, a variety of χ((3)) nonlinear interactions in silica microspheres, consisting of third harmonic generation and Raman assisted third order sum-frequency generation in the visible. A tunable, room temperature, cw multicolor emission in silica microspherical whispering-gallery-mode microresonators has been achieved by controlling the cavity mode dispersion and exciting nonequatorial modes for efficient frequency conversion.

High-gain wavelength-selective amplification and cavity ring down spectroscopy in a fluoride glass erbium-doped microsphere.

We experimentally demonstrate a compact optical amplifier consisting of a rare-earth-doped whispering-gallery-mode microsphere coupled via a tapered fiber. A gain up to 20 dB is reported in an erbium-doped fluoride glass microsphere 135 µm in diameter. Below the amplification regime, the optical gain is used to compensate for unavoidable losses due to surface contamination or scattering. Quality factor as high as 2×10(9) has been measured by analyzing the transient response of the microsphere excited by a dynamically shifted frequency input signal.

Fiber ring laser for intracavity sensing using a whispering-gallery-mode resonator.

Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonators are used as optical transducers for sensing applications. The typical detection scheme is based on tracking the WGM resonance shift, by scanning with a tunable laser, when a change of the refractive index in the region probed by the WGM takes place. We propose a sensing approach based instead on monitoring the position of the laser line of a fiber ring laser having a WGM microsphere in its loop. We have demonstrated that the induced shift is the same for the ring laser line and for the microsphere resonance. The proposed method requires simpler, cheaper equipment and may also improve the sensor resolution because the ring laser line is much narrower than the microsphere WGM resonance.

Planar coupling to high-Q lithium niobate disk resonators.

We demonstrate optical coupling to high-Q lithium niobate disks from an integrated lithium niobate waveguide. The waveguides are made by proton exchange in X-cut lithium niobate substrate. The disks with diameter of 4.7 mm and thickness of 1 mm are made from commercial Z-cut lithium niobate wafers by polishing the edges into a spheroidal profile. Both resonance linewidth and cavity ringdown measurements were performed to calculate the Q factor of the resonator, which is in excess of 10(8). Planar coupling represents the most promising technique for practical applications of whispering gallery mode resonators.

Whispering gallery mode spectra of channel waveguide coupled microspheres.

Evanescent coupling of light from glass channel waveguides into the whispering gallery modes of glass microspheres of radius 15?m and 100?m is studied experimentally at wavelengths near 1550 nm. Fitting the positions, widths and heights of resonances in the experimental spectra to the characteristic equation for microsphere modes and to universal coupled microresonator theory, we establish sphere radius and index, identify mode numbers, and determine losses. The results provide detailed information for the design of optical devices incorporating microsphere resonators in planar lightwave circuits.