Opto-acoustic phenomena in whispering gallery mode resonators

Abstract

Optical whispering gallery mode resonators are important platforms to enhance and study various nonlinear frequency conversion processes. Stimulated Brillouin scattering is one of the strongest nonlinear effects, and can be successfully investigated using these platforms. In this article, we study the phenomenon of stimulated Brillouin scattering using a crystalline disk resonator. A fast scanning ringdown spectroscopy technique is used to characterize the optical modes featuring quality factors of the order of one billion at telecom wavelengths. The mW scale threshold power in a centimeter disk resonator is observed and found to be strongly dependent on the gap between the resonator and the prism coupler.