Chalcogenide microresonators tailored to distinct morphologies by the shaping of glasses on silica tapers

Abstract

Production of chalcogenide (As2Se3) microresonators in sphere, loop, and bottle morphologies by the shaping of glasses at appropriate temperatures between cleaved silica tapers is reported. The quality factors exceed QS = 6.2×105, QB = 6.7 × 105, and QL = 1.6 × 104 for the sphere, bottle, and loop microresonators, respectively. All-optical thermally assisted tuning with a rate of 0.61 nm/mW is demonstrated for a bottle microcavity pumped via a silica taper at a wavelength of 670 nm. This technique enables practical and robust in situ production of chalcogenide microresonators thermally spliced to silica fibers in several morphologies with a wide tuning range of size.