Spectral cleaning and output modal transformations in whispering-gallery-mode microresonators

Abstract

A systematic study on the effects of microtaper fiber diameters on the spectral characteristics of a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microbottle resonator (MBR) is presented. Progressively cleaner and simpler spectra of the MBR were observed when the utilized microtaper fiber waist diameter (Dt) was increased from 2 to 10 μm. The maximum transmission depth at resonance varies with different microtaper fiber utilized from ∼20 dB (Dt=2 μm) to ∼4 dB (Dt=10 μm). The loaded Q-factors were observed to be unaffected by the increase of Dt with values of >106 being measured in all cases. Mode transformation of MBR was also experimentally investigated and compared to a microdisc finite-difference time-domain simulation by studying near-field images of the output beam on the waist of the microtaper fibers. For the first time, experimental observation of mode transformation from LP01 to LP11 across scanned WGM resonances is being reported.