"Ultra-high-Q Optical Microcavities"
Tobias J. Kippenberg
Caltech
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 -11 AM - 12:00 Noon in 375 LeConte Hall
Abstract
Optical micro-cavities confine light within dielectric volumes and are
important in a variety of fields such as cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (cQED), photonics,
bio-chemical sensing and nonlinear optics. The optical trajectories occur near
the interface quality. With a nearly atomic scale surface roughness,
surface-tension-induced microcavities such as lliquid microdroplets or silica microspheres
are superior to all other dielectric microresonators (e.g. photonic crystal
defect cavities, micro-posts or microdisks resonators) when their photon lifetime or
the equivalent quality factor (Q) is compared. In this seminar I will present recent
advances in demonstrating an ultra-high-Q toroid microcavity on a silicon chip,
which allow observing and exploring a variety of nonlinear optical processes,
such as stimulated Raman scattering, optical parametric oscillation and radiation
pressure driven mechanical oscillations. These nonlinear processes can be observed
at ultra-low threshold and with high efficiency. I will conclude the presentation
with rare-earth and silicon nanocrystal doping of toroid microcavities.
