Crystal whispering gallery mode optical resonators

• US 7,630,417 B1
• Filed: 06/24/2005
• Issued: 12/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Matsko, Andrey B., Savchenkov, Anatoliy, Maleki, Lutfollah, Strekalov, Dmitry V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fahmy; Wael
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAYADIAN, HRAYR
• Application Number:
  US11/166,355
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 250/227.11, 359/239, 359/245, 359/247, 359/330, 372/20, 372/21, 372/32, 331/42, 331/43, 331/96, 385/5, 385/6, 385/8, 385/14, 385/15, 385 27- 31
• US Class Current: 372/20
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/353 Frequency conversion, i.e. wherein a light beam is generated with frequency components different from those of the incident light beams
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2203/15 involving resonance effects, e.g. resonantly enhanced interaction
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/005 Optical components external to the laser cavity, specially adapted therefor, e.g. for homogenisation or merging of the beams or for manipulating laser pulses, e.g. pulse shaping H01S5/026, H01S5/18388 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0092 for nonlinear frequency conversion, e.g. second harmonic generation [SHG] or sum- or difference-frequency generation outside the laser cavity
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0687 Stabilising the frequency of the laser

Abstract

Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) optical resonators made of crystal materials to achieve high quality factors at or above 10¹⁰.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

splitting a laser beam from a laser into a first laser beam into a first optical arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a second laser beam into a second optical arm of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer;

inserting a nonlinear whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonator formed of a fluorite crystal material exhibiting optical nonlinearities for nonlinear wave mixing in the first optical arm of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer to receive the first laser beam from an input end of the first optical arm and to output a filtered first laser beam to an output end of the first optical arm, wherein the whispering-gallery-mode resonator comprises at least a portion of a spheroid with an eccentricity larger than 0.1;

controlling the laser beam entering the Mach-Zehnder interferometer by setting a power level of the first laser beam above a threshold and effectuating nonlinear wave mixing inside the WGM resonator, including suppressing light in the TM mode caused by Raman scattering and generating the nonlinear wavemixing in TE sets of whispering-gallery modes circulating along an equator of the spheroid around a short ellipsoid axis based on an electronic nonlinearity for the TE mode by controlling polarization of the laser beam to be parallel to a symmetric axis of the WGM resonator wherein the suppressing step occurs while the generating step occurs;

combining the filtered first laser beam and the second laser beam to produce a combined optical beam as an output of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer;

converting the combined optical beam into an electronic detector signal; and

observing an optical hyperparametric oscillation caused by the nonlinear wave mixing in the WGM resonator.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the laser is a tunable laser, the method further comprising:

converting a portion of the filtered first laser beam into an electrical signal;

extracting a DC portion of the electrical signal as a frequency error signal of the laser; and

applying the frequency error signal to control the laser to lock the laser to a whispering gallery mode of the resonator.

3. A method as in claim 1, comprising:

placing an optical coupling element adjacent to the equator to evanescently couple optical energy into the WGM resonator in at least one of the whispering-gallery modes, or out of the WGM resonator from at least one of the whispering-gallery modes.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein the fluorite crystal material is CaF2.

5. A method as in claim 1, comprising using a frequency generated by the nonlinear wave mixing to provide an optical frequency reference.