Abstract

Owing to the ultra-high optical Q-factors and small mode volumes, fused silica toroidal microcavities are well suited for generation of light via nonlinear frequency conversion. Optical parametric oscillations (OPO) in microcavities have recently been reported in [1] and theoretically explained in [2]. Furthermore, it has been shown that the parametric process can cascade. Figure 1 (left panel) shows a typical optical spectrum obtained by pumping an 80 micron diameter toroidal microcavity with a 1553 nm external cavity laser. Higlily efficient evanescent coupling from a tapered optical fiber is used to excite the whispering-gallery modes of the microtoroids (cf. Figure 1, right panel).

© 2007 IEEE