Towards micro-ring resonators for quantum sources and rotation sensors

Abstract

Optical ring resonators have been studied since the first lasers were produced in the late 60s. Since then, they have become established as in many and varied fields, in particular sensing, due to their ability to sense a multitude of parameters through their effect on the optical path length of the light confined within the ring. Silica, with its low loss in the near-IR, has become ubiquitous in optics. Flame hydrolysis has been used since the 80s in order to produce lowloss, high purity glass layers at high deposition rates for planar lightwave circuits, primarily silica-based. However, germania, often described as structurally analogous to silica, shows potential as an alternative as a glass-former due to its potential for outstripping silica’s low loss further into the mid-IR. This work explores the development of i) Planar high germania content glasses for damascene and UV-written ring resonators and ii) Flame hydrolysis deposition techniques for high germania-content glasses onto glass and ceramic rods for UV written and CO2 laser-machined rod resonators. Development of these is with a view to their use in Sagnac rotation sensing and exploitation of germania’s comparatively high nonlinearity to produce frequency comb sources. To that end, flame hydrolysis deposition of germanate glasses onto various substrates and geometries is explored and characterisation of these devices described

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Identifiers

ORCID for Peter Smith: orcid.org/0000-0003-0319-718X

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