Adiabatic microring resonators

A class of whispering-gallery-mode resonators, herein referred to as adiabatic microring resonators, is proposed and numerically demonstrated. Adiabatic microrings enable electrical and mechanical contact to be made to the resonator without inducing radiation, while supporting only a single radial mode and therein achieving an uncorrupted free spectral range (FSR). Rigorous finite-difference time-domain simulations indicate that adiabatic microrings with outer diameters as small as 4 μm can achieve resonator quality factors (Qs) as high as Q = 88,000 and an FSR of 8.2 THz, despite large internal contacts.     

Compact bandwidth-tunable microring resonators

Using interferometric couplers and thermal tuning, we demonstrate a novel design of compact microring resonators on silicon-on-insulator platform with tunable bandwidth from 0.1 to 0.7 nm. The structures present an extinction ratio higher than 23 dB and a footprint of less than 0.001 mm(2), which are suitable for integrated optical signal processing such as reconfigurable filtering and routing.     

Power insensitive silicon microring resonators

We demonstrate power insensitive silicon microring resonators without the need for active feedback control. The passive control of the resonance is achieved by utilizing the compensation of two counteracting processes, free carrier dispersion blueshift and thermo-optic redshift. In the fabricated devices, the resonant wavelength shifts less than one resonance linewidth for dropped power up to 335 μW, more than fivefold improvement in cavity energy handling capability compared to regular microrings.     

Bandwidth-tunable silicon nitride microring resonators

We designed a reconfigurable dual-interferometer coupled silicon nitride microring resonator.By tuning the integrated heater on interferometer's arms,the"critical coupling"bandwidth of resonant mode is continuously adjustable whose quality factor varies from 7.9×10⁴ to 1.9×10⁵ with the extinction ratio keeping higher than 25 dB.Also a variety of coupling spanning from"under-coupling"to"over-coupling"were achieved,showing the ability to tune the quality factor from 6.0×10³ to 2.3×10⁵.Our design can provide an adjustable filtering method on silicon nitride photonic chip and contribute to optimize the nonlinear process for quantum photonics and all-optical signal processing.     

Mode cycling in microring optical resonators

Electromagnetic resonators are important not only as realizable models of fundamental concepts in classical and quantum physics, based on the existence and properties of eigenmodes, but also in the practical design of lasers, amplifiers, sensors, filters, and delay lines. Coupled-eigenmode systems may be realized via the multiple eigenmodes of a single resonator or by the coupling of a mode across multiple resonators. Mode cycling is demonstrated as a distinct concept of sequential population transfer in coupled multiple-eigenvalue resonators. Based on this principle, a coupled polymeric microring resonator interferometer is fabricated and characterized; the device achieves greater than 30 dB extinction and (loaded) Q approximately 5.5 x 10(3).     

Vertically coupled GaInAsP--InP microring resonators

Vertically coupled microring resonator channel-dropping filters are demonstrated in the GaInAsP-InP material system. These devices were fabricated without regrowth. In this method, low-loss single-mode waveguides are removed from the growth substrate and bonded to a GaAs transfer substrate with benzocyclobutene. This permits fabrication of vertically coupled waveguides on both sides of the epilayer. Optical quality facets are obtained by cleaving through the transfer substrate. Operation of single-mode, single-ring optical channel-dropping filters is demonstrated.     

Enhanced second-harmonic generation in AlGaAs microring resonators

Highly efficient second-harmonic generation can be achieved by harnessing resonance effects in microring resonator structures. We propose an angular quasi-phase-matching scheme based on the position dependence of polarization inside the ring resonator.     

Nonlinear polarization conversion using microring resonators

We present a design of a polarization converter between linear, circular, and elliptic accomplished with an on-chip high-Q dielectric microring resonator. Nonlinear polarization switching can be accomplished at modest input intensities because of the high-intensity compression in the ring. We predict an optical bistability effect making the polarization of the transmitted light dependent on its spectral or intensity history.     

Femtosecond laser tuning of silicon microring resonators

Femtosecond laser modification is demonstrated as a possible method for postfabrication tuning of silicon microring resonators. Single 400 nm femtosecond laser pulses were used to modify the effective index of crystalline silicon microring waveguides by either amorphization or surface nanomilling depending on the laser fluence. Both blue- and redshifts in the microring resonance could be achieved without imparting significant degradation to the device quality factor.     

Simultaneous fast and slow light in microring resonators

Two orthogonal light polarizations in a waveguide overcoupled to microring resonators can propagate as fast and slow light. Which polarization is fast (slow) is determined by input polarization and the number of resonators.     

High-speed all-optical switching in ion-implanted silicon-on-insulator microring resonators

We demonstrate high-speed all-optical switching via vertical excitation of an electron-hole plasma in an oxygen-ion implanted silicon-on-insulator microring resonator. Based on the plasma dispersion effect the spectral response of the device is rapidly modulated by photoinjection and subsequent recombination of charge carriers at artificially introduced fast recombination centers. At an implantation dose of 1 x 10(12) cm(-2) the carrier lifetime is reduced to 55 ps, which facilitates optical switching of signal light in the 1.55 mum wavelength range at modulation speeds larger than 5 Gbits/s.     

Slow-light dispersion in periodically patterned silicon microring resonators

We demonstrate a novel periodically patterned ring resonator evanescently coupled with a coupler waveguide (CWG) on a silicon-on-insulator platform. In order to optimize the coupling, we phase match the ring resonator and the CWG by tuning the width of the CWG. In the transmission spectra, we measure a high extinction ratio of more than 20 dB and achieve a group index of ~20 in the slow-light regime. Beating patterns in the calculated mode profiles suggest strong interference between degenerate modes. This device opens up the possibility of new applications in compact device integration in wavelength-division multiplexing system while reducing the in-band four-wave mixing cross talk.     

Electro-optically tunable microring resonators on lithium niobate

Electro-optical tuning of a microring resonator fabricated on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) is presented. The device structure, including microring resonator and couplers, is designed in detail and is produced by titanium diffusion on the wet-etched LiNbO3 ridge surface. The resonance wavelengths for TM and TE polarizations can be tuned by electro-optic effect. The output characteristics of through port and drop port in the microring resonators are measured, and the effect of applied voltage on the shift of resonant wavelength is discussed. The presented microring resonators have the features of fast tuning speed, high material stability, bidirection wavelength shift, and no heating interference. Realization of such a microring resonator on LiNbO3 makes the utilization of electro-optic tuning and nonlinear effects in the versatile photonic applications of microring resonators achievable.     

Filter synthesis for periodically coupled microring resonators

The theory of filter synthesis using periodically coupled microring resonators is developed as a means to overcome the fabrication sensitivities inherent in conventional higher-order filters, while still achieving desirable spectral characteristics. Each resonator in the array can compensate for deficiencies in any of the others. These filters exhibit a boxlike shape and very high extinction ratios.     

Single-photon all-optical switching using coupled microring resonators

We study the nonlinear phase response of a microring resonator coupled to a bus waveguide and the use of this nonlinear phase shift to store information in the microring resonator and enhance the switching characteristics of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). By introducing coupling between adjacent microring resonators, the switching characteristics of the MZI can be exponentially enhanced as a function of the number of microring resonators, when compared to the linear enhancement for uncoupled resonators. With only a few moderate-finesse microring resonators, the switching power can be reduced to attowatt level, allowing for photonic switching devices that operate at single-photon level in ordinary optical waveguides.      

DQPSK demodulation using integrated silicon microring resonators

In this paper, we fabricate an ultra-small 20 Gb/s differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) demodulator using silicon based microring resonators and show that the separation between the microring resonance and optical carrier can be tuned for DQPSK demodulation at different bit rates. The double-waveguide microring resonators enable detection of I (in phase) and Q (quadrature phase) signals as well as inverted I and Q signals simultaneously. Experimental verification is performed for DQPSK demodulation using a single waveguide microring. We generate DQPSK signal in a serial configuration and demodulate the I or Q channel by offsetting the resonance peak. The offset between the resonance and center carrier is adjusted to be 4.87 GHz and the phase shift (phase offset) is calculated to be exactly π/4.     

Modeling of coupling loss in ultra-compact SOI microring resonators

Ultra-compact microring resonators, made of high index contrast (HIC)-silicon on insulator (SOI) materials, have become key optical devices in integrated photonics systems. Both computer simulations and actual experiments have showed that coupling loss was a significant contributor to the total losses in ultra-compact microring resonators. In this paper, a computable model derived from step approximation method was present to theoretically determine the coupling loss. Excellent matching results between the model and literatures were achieved. The proposed model can be applied to evaluate the coupling loss for microring resonators with various geometries and guide the design of low loss optical devices based on ultra-compact microring resonators.     

Analytical solutions of coupled-mode equations for microring resonators

We present a study on analytical solutions of coupled-mode equations for microring resonators with an emphasis on occurrence of all-optical EIT phenomenon, obtained by using a cofactor. As concrete examples, analytical solutions for a 3×3 linearly distributed coupler and a circularly distributed coupler are obtained. The former corresponds to a non-degenerate eigenvalue problem and the latter corresponds to a degenerate eigenvalue problem. For comparison and without loss of generality, analytical solution for a 4×4 linearly distributed coupler is also obtained. This paper may be of interest to optical physics and integrated photonics communities.     

Analysis for amplifying characteristics of Er-Yb-co-doped microring resonators

Formulas of the transfer functions and the output power gains are presented, amplifying characteristics are analyzed, and simulation is performed for an Er³⁺-Yb³⁺-co-doped microring resonator. Under the pump wavelength of 980 nm and the central signal wavelength of 1550 nm, the dependence of the output power gain on the amplitude coupling ratio, pump power, signal power, and the dopant concentration is investigated, the output spectra are presented, and the optimization of the device is carried out. Simulated results show that the output power gain of this device is much larger than that of the Er³⁺-Yb³⁺-co-doped straight waveguide amplifier (EYCDWA) with the same waveguide parameters.     

Backscattering in silicon microring resonators: a quantitative analysis

Silicon microring resonators very often exhibit resonance splitting due to backscattering. This effect is hard to quantitatively and predicatively model. This paper presents a behavioral circuit model for microrings that quantitatively explains the wide variations in resonance splitting observed in experiments. The model is based on an in‐depth analysis of the contributions to backscattering by both the waveguides and couplers. Backscattering transforms unidirectional microrings into bidirectional circuits by coupling the clockwise and counterclockwise circulating modes. In high‐Q microrings, visible resonance splitting will be induced, but, due to the stochastic nature of backscattering, this splitting is different for each resonance. Our model, based on temporal coupled mode theory, and the associated fitting method, are both accurate and robust, and can also explain asymmetrically split resonances. The cause of asymmetric resonance splitting is identified as the backcoupling in the couplers. This is experimentally confirmed and its dependency on gap and coupling length is further analyzed. Moreover, the wide variation in resonance splitting of one spectrum is analyzed and successfully explained by our circuit model that incorporates most linear parasitic effects in the microring. This analysis uncovers multi‐cavity interference within the microring as an important source of this variation.