微光纤光学谐振器的原理与应用

Optical microfiber resonator:principle and applications

由传统光纤拉锥形成的直径为几百纳米到几微米的微光纤具有大倏逝场、强光场束缚能力、高光学非线性、易于弯曲的可塑性和兼容现有光纤系统的便利性等优势,为发展小型和功能集成的全光纤器件提供了高自由度的平台。作为基础的光电子器件之一,光学谐振器在光通信、传感、信号处理、量子光学等领域具有很大的研究价值,被广泛应用。传统光学微谐振器多基于光刻技术,制备工艺条件相对复杂。而随着微光纤制备技术的成熟,基于微光纤的光学谐振器也被提出并逐步发展。微光纤光学谐振器是一种基于倏逝场耦合的近场光学耦合器件,具有低插入损耗、高精细度、易于制造以及与光纤系统良好兼容性等诸多优点,可应用于滤波器、传感器、光调制器和光纤激光等诸多领域。本文从微光纤光学谐振器的基本原理、器件制备、应用等方面介绍了该领域的相关进展。

Microfibers tapered from conventional optical fibers with diameters ranging from hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers possess various advantages including large evanescent field,strong light confinement,high optical nonlinearity,flexible configurability,and low-loss connection to other fiberized systems,which makes it an open platform for miniaturization and integration of all-fiber devices.As a fundamental opto-electronic component,optical resonators have got comprehensively researched and widely applied in the fields of optical communication,sensing,signal processing,and quantum photonics.Traditional optical resonators are fabricated through lithography which is relatively complicated.With the maturation of microfiber fabrication methods,optical resonator based on optical microfibers was demonstrated and developed.As an optical coupling device based on evanescent field coupling,the microfiber resonator features in low insertion loss,high finesse,easy fabrication,and compatibility with fiber systems.It can be utilized in domains of filter,sensor,modulator,and fiber laser.In this article,we summarize the recent progress in the microfiber resonators research fields,covering fundamental characteristics,fabrication methods,and applications of microfiber resonators.