Packaged microsphere-taper coupling system with a high Q factor.

A novel packaged microsphere-taper coupling system which consists of a glass tube and two glass plates is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. We analyze the impact of the microsphere distortion on the resonant spectrum and it is observed that a very high quality factor (Q) up to 1.08×10(8) can be achieved by optimizing the microsphere position and orientation relative to the fiber taper. The maintenance of Q and a stable spectrum are realized by placing the packaged structure in a sealed organic glass box. Furthermore, to verify the practicability of the sealed device, thermal sensing experiments are carried out, which indicates the excellent convenience of the device with a resolution of 1.12×10(-4)°C. The portability and robustness of the packaged structure make it strikingly attractive and illustrate its potential in practical microcavity sensors and lasers.

[1]  Anbo Wang,et al.  Temperature compensation of optical microresonators using a surface layer with negative thermo-optic coefficient. , 2007, Optics letters.

[2]  G. S. Murugan,et al.  Whispering gallery mode spectra of channel waveguide coupled microspheres. , 2008, Optics express.

[3]  M. Gorodetsky,et al.  Ultimate Q of optical microsphere resonators. , 1996, Optics letters.

[4]  Jordi Martorell,et al.  Whispering-gallery-mode phase matching for surface second-order nonlinear optical processes in spherical microresonators , 2008 .

[5]  Lan Yang,et al.  Compensation of thermal refraction effect in high-Q toroidal microresonator by polydimethylsiloxane coating , 2008 .

[6]  Zheng-Fu Han,et al.  Fabrication of high-Q polydimethylsiloxane optical microspheres for thermal sensing , 2009 .

[7]  Mani Hossein-Zadeh,et al.  Fiber-taper coupling to Whispering-Gallery modes of fluidic resonators embedded in a liquid medium. , 2006, Optics express.

[8]  Yan Li,et al.  On chip, high-sensitivity thermal sensor based on high-Q polydimethylsiloxane-coated microresonator , 2010 .

[9]  Ian M. White,et al.  Refractometric sensors based on microsphere resonators , 2005 .

[10]  Jordi Martorell,et al.  Whispering gallery microresonators for second harmonic light generation from a low number of small molecules , 2011, Nature communications.

[11]  Tao Wei,et al.  Optical microresonator based on hollow sphere with porous wall for chemical sensing. , 2012, Optics letters.

[12]  Wei Liang,et al.  Compact tunable kHz-linewidth semiconductor laser stabilized with a whispering-gallery mode microresonator , 2011, LASE.

[13]  James S Wilkinson,et al.  Chalcogenide glass microsphere laser. , 2010, Optics express.

[14]  Tobias Rossmann,et al.  Temperature sensitivity of silica micro-resonators , 2008 .

[15]  James S. Wilkinson,et al.  Position-dependent coupling between a channel waveguide and a distorted microsphere resonator , 2010 .

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

[17]  Vladimir S. Ilchenko,et al.  Quality-factor and nonlinear properties of optical Whispering-Gallery modes , 1989 .

[18]  K Vahala,et al.  Highly efficient optical power transfer to whispering-gallery modes by use of a symmetrical dual-coupling configuration. , 2000, Optics letters.

[19]  Zheng-Fu Han,et al.  Packaged silica microsphere-taper coupling system for robust thermal sensing application. , 2011, Optics express.

[20]  M. Oxborrow.  Traceable 2-D Finite-Element Simulation of the Whispering-Gallery Modes of Axisymmetric Electromagnetic Resonators , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[21]  Yuliya Semenova,et al.  Packaged chalcogenide microsphere resonator with high Q-factor , 2013 .

[22]  Brent E. Little,et al.  Analytic theory of coupling from tapered fibers and half-blocks into microsphere resonators , 1999 .

[23]  K. Vahala,et al.  Ultralow-threshold Raman laser using a spherical dielectric microcavity , 2002, Nature.

[24]  Oliver Benson,et al.  Optimization of prism coupling to high-Q modes in a microsphere resonator using a near-field probe , 2005 .

[25]  Alessandro Chiasera,et al.  Spherical whispering‐gallery‐mode microresonators , 2010 .

[26]  J. Knight,et al.  Phase-matched excitation of whispering-gallery-mode resonances by a fiber taper. , 1997, Optics letters.