2012/03/07 by Amy Watkins, Jonathan Ward, Síle Nic Chormaic · 5 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Doping #Glass microsphere #Laser #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Microsphere #Optical properties and cooling technologies in crystalline materials #Phosphate glass #Photonic and Optical Devices #Photonics #Whispering gallery #Whispering-gallery wave #physics.atom-ph #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1143/jjap.51.052501
published in Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 51(5R), 052501 (Institute of Physics) · 20 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Japanese Journal of Applied Physics
arxiv created 2012/03/07 · openalex publication_date 2012/04/27 · arxiv updated 2012/08/23 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present experimental results on an all-optical, thermally-assisted technique for broad range tuning of microsphere cavity resonance modes to arbitrary probe wavelengths. An erbium:ytterbium co-doped phosphate glass (Schott IOG-2) microsphere is pumped at 978 nm via the supporting stem and the heat generated by absorption of the pump light expands the cavity and changes the refractive index. This is a robust tuning method that decouples the pump from the probe and allows fine tuning of the microsphere's whispering gallery modes. Pump/probe experiments were performed to demonstrate thermo-optical tuning to specific probe wavelengths, including the 5 S 1/2 F= 3 to 5 P 3/2 F'= 4 laser cooling transition of rubidium-85. This is of particular interest for cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED)-type experiments, while the broad tuning range achievable is useful for integrated photonic devices, including sensors and modulators.