Lead-silicate glass optical microbubble resonator

Abstract

Microbubble whispering gallery resonators have the potential to become key components in a variety of active and passive photonic circuit devices by offering a range of significant functionalities. Here, we report on the fabrication, optical characterization, and theoretical analysis of lead-silicate glass, optical microbubble resonators. Evanescent field coupling to the microbubbles was achieved using a 1 µm diameter, silica microfiber at a wavelength of circa 775 nm. High Q-factor modes were efficiently excited in both single-stem and two-stem, lead-silicate glass, microbubble resonators, with bubble diameters of 38 µm (single-stem) and 48 µm (two-stem). Whispering gallery mode resonances with Q-factors as high as 2.3x10⁵ (single-stem) and 7x10⁶ (two-stem) were observed. By exploiting the high-nonlinearity of the lead-silicate glass, this work will act as a catalyst for studying a range of nonlinear optical effects in microbubbles, such as Raman scattering and four-wave mixing, at low optical powers.

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ORCID for G. Brambilla: orcid.org/0000-0002-5730-0499

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