Q>100 million microresonators on silicon and applications

Kerry Vahala
Professor of Applied Physics &
Professor of Information Science and Technology
California Institute of TechnologyA novel laser processing method has been applied to create optical micro-resonators having Q factors as high as 500 million on silicon wafers. The combination of Ultra-high-Q and small mode volume opens up new applications for wafer based resonators. In this talk I will first review the processing and passive optical properties of these devices and then describe their application to demonstrate micro Raman and micro OPOs on a chip as well as rare-earth-doped lasers on silicon. Finally, I will describe some preliminary work underway that will apply these devices in cavity QED.Kerry Vahala is Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and Technology and Professor of Applied Physics at Caltech. He also received his Ph. D. (85) in Applied Physics at Caltech. His research on micro-resonators has led to wafer-based devices operating in the Q regime above 100 million and has also provided low-loss methods for coupling directly to optical fiber. This performance combination has made possible microwatt-threshold nonlinear Raman and Parametric sources with quantum-limited differential efficiencies and is being actively pursued as a route to cavity QED on-a-chip systems. Vahala is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and has served as topical editor for Photonics Technology Letters, the Journal of the Optical Society of America and the Journal of Semiconductor Science and Technology. He was program co-chair for CLEO 99 and General Chair for CLEO 2001. He was the first recipient of the Richard P. Feynman Hughes Fellowship and has also received both the Presidential Young Investigator and Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Awards. In addition, he has been recognized three times by the Student Association at Caltech for excellence in teaching and mentoring. Vahala is co-founder and Chairman of Xponent Photonics, located in Monrovia, CA.Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Place: Olin Hall 230 (OHE)
Time: 12:00 – 1:00
Refreshments will be served at 11:45
ALL First Year EE-EP Graduate Students are REQUIRED to ATTEND

Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 230

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Robert Mena