Crystalline micro-resonators: status and applications

We report on fabrication of new ultrahigh Q crystalline microcavities. Optical Q factor of (4.4±1.2)×108 is achieved for Vacuum UV grade CaF2 cavity with 100 μm in diameter. It is shown that if excimer grade crystal is used, Q factor of 5.5 mm cavity can be as high as (5.31±0.04)×1010 at laser wavelength of 1064 nm. We discuss nonlinear properties of these cavities such as Raman lasing with threshold of less than a few microwatts. Possible application in cavity quantum electrodynamics is analyzed.

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