Demonstration of ultra-high-Q small mode volume toroid microcavities on a chip

Optical microcavities confine light spatially and temporally and find application in a wide range of fundamental and applied studies. In many areas, the microcavity figure of merit is not only determined by photon lifetime (or the equivalent quality-factor, Q), but also by simultaneous achievement of small mode volume (V). Here we demonstrate ultra-high Q-factor small mode volume toroid microcavities on-a-chip, which exhibit a Q/V factor of more than 10^6 (lambda/n)^–3. These values are the highest reported to date for any chip-based microcavity. A corresponding Purcell factor in excess of 200,000 and a cavity finesse of > 2.8×10^6 is achieved, demonstrating that toroid microcavities are promising candidates for studies of the Purcell effect, cavity QED or biochemical sensing.

[1]  Christophe Dupuis,et al.  High-Q wet-etched GaAs microdisks containing InAs quantum boxes , 1999 .

[2]  Oskar Painter,et al.  Optical-fiber-based measurement of an ultrasmall volume high-Q photonic crystal microcavity , 2004 .

[3]  A. Campillo,et al.  Optical processes in microcavities , 1996 .

[4]  V. Datsyuk.  Some characteristics of resonant electromagnetic modes in a dielectric sphere , 1992 .

[5]  Peter Michler,et al.  Cavity-quantum electrodynamics using a single InAs quantum dot in a microdisk structure , 2001 .

[6]  Costas Fotakis,et al.  LASERS, OPTICS, AND OPTOELECTRONICS 2865 Single-mode solid-state single photon source based on isolated quantum dots in pillar microcavities , 2001 .

[7]  Lev Albertovich Weinstein,et al.  Open Resonators and Open Waveguides , 1970 .

[8]  T. Asano,et al.  High-Q photonic nanocavity in a two-dimensional photonic crystal , 2003, Nature.

[9]  D. Weiss,et al.  Splitting of high-Q Mie modes induced by light backscattering in silica microspheres. , 1995, Optics letters.

[10]  K. Vahala,et al.  Modal coupling in traveling-wave resonators. , 2002, Optics letters.

[11]  Cai,et al.  Observation of critical coupling in a fiber taper to a silica-microsphere whispering-gallery mode system , 2000, Physical review letters.

[12]  T. J. Kippenberg,et al.  Ultra-high-Q toroid microcavity on a chip , 2003, Nature.

[13]  H. Mabuchi,et al.  High-Q measurements of fused-silica microspheres in the near infrared. , 1998, Optics letters.

[14]  E. Costard,et al.  Enhanced Spontaneous Emission by Quantum Boxes in a Monolithic Optical Microcavity , 1998 .

[15]  E. Purcell,et al.  Resonance Absorption by Nuclear Magnetic Moments in a Solid , 1946 .

[16]  Philippe Lalanne,et al.  Bloch-wave engineering for high-Q, small-V microcavities , 2003 .

[17]  K. Vahala,et al.  Ideality in a fiber-taper-coupled microresonator system for application to cavity quantum electrodynamics. , 2003, Physical review letters.