Tunable SNAP microresonators via internal ohmic heating

• Published in: Optics letters Vol. 43; no. 17; p. 4316
• Main Authors: Vitullo, Dashiell L P, Zaki, Sajid, Gardosi, Gabriella, Mangan, Brian J, Windeler, Robert S, Brodsky, Michael, Sumetsky, Misha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.09.2018
• ISSN: 1539-4794
• DOI: 10.1364/OL.43.004316

We demonstrate a thermally tunable surface nanoscale axial photonics (SNAP) platform. Stable tuning is achieved by heating a SNAP structure fabricated on the surface of a silica capillary with a metal wire positioned inside. Heating a SNAP microresonator with a uniform wire introduces uniform variation of its effective radius which results in constant shift of its resonance wavelengths. Heating with a nonuniform wire allows local nanoscale variation of the capillary effective radius, which enables differential tuning of the spectrum of SNAP structures, as well as the creation of temporary SNAP microresonators that exist only when current is applied. As an example, we fabricate two bottle microresonators coupled to each other and demonstrate differential tuning of their resonance wavelengths into and out of degeneracy with precision better than 0.2 pm. The developed approach is beneficial for ultra-precise fabrication of tunable ultralow loss parity-time symmetric, optomechanical, and cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) devices.