NASA NTRS2009
Series-coupled pairs of whispering-gallery-mode optical microresonators have been demonstrated as prototypes of stable, narrow-band-pass photonic filters. Characteristics that are generally considered desirable in a photonic or other narrow-band-pass filter include response as nearly flat as possible across the pass band, sharp roll-off, and high rejection of signals outside the pass band. A single microresonator exhibits a Lorentzian filter function: its peak response cannot be made flatter and its roll-off cannot be made sharper. However, as a matter of basic principle applicable to resonators in general, it is possible to (1) use multiple resonators, operating in series or parallel, to obtain a roll-off sharper, and out-of-band rejection greater, relative to those of a Lorentzian filter function and (2) to make the peak response (the response within the pass band) flatter by tuning the resonators to slightly different resonance frequencies that span the pass band. The first of the two microresonators in each series-coupled pair was a microtorus made of germania-doped silica (containing about 19 mole percent germania), which is a material used for the cores of some optical fibers. The reasons for choosing this material is that exposing it to ultraviolet light causes it to undergo a chemical change that changes its index of refraction and thereby changes the resonance frequency. Hence, this material affords the means to effect the desired slight relative detuning of the two resonators. The second microresonator in each pair was a microsphere of pure silica. The advantage of making one of the resonators a torus instead of a sphere is that its spectrum of whispering-gallery-mode resonances is sparser, as needed to obtain a frequency separation of at least 100 GHz between resonances of the filter as a whole.