Whispering gallery mode excitation using exposed-core fiber

Abstract

Whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in micro-resonators are of interest due to their high Q-factors. Ultra-thin fiber tapers are widely deployed to couple light into micro-resonators but achieving stable and practical coupling for out-of-lab use remains challenging. Here, a new WGM coupling scheme using an exposed-core silica fiber (ECF) is proposed, which overcomes the challenge of using fragile fiber tapers. Microspheres are deposited onto the exposed channel for excitation via the evanescent field of the fiber’s guided modes. The outer jacket of the ECF partially encapsulates the microspheres, protecting them from external physical disturbance. By varying the mode launching conditions in this few-mode ECF, in combination with a Fano resonance effect, we demonstrate a high degree of tunability in the reflection spectrum. Furthermore, we show multi-particle WGM excitation, which could be controlled to occur either simultaneously or separately through controlling the ECF mode launching conditions. This work can bring value towards applications such as optical switches and modulators, multiplexed/distributed biosensing, and multi-point lasing, integrated in a single optical fiber device that avoids fiber post-processing.