Encapsulation of a fiber taper coupled microtoroid resonator in a polymer matrix

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to encapsulate a high-Q microtoroid resonator with a fiber taper in a polymer matrix, enhancing stability, protection, and thermal sensing capabilities.

Contribution

The authors developed a polymer encapsulation technique that maintains high Q factors and stability of microtoroid resonators for practical applications.

Findings

Achieved Q factor higher than 10^7 after encapsulation

Demonstrated stable coupling and long-term performance

Showed potential for thermal sensing applications

Abstract

We encapsulated a high-quality (Q) factor optical whispering gallery mode (WGM) microtoroid resonator together with its side coupled fiber taper inside a low refractive index polymer, achieving a final Q higher than 10^7. Packaging provides stable resonator-fiber taper coupling, long-term maintenance of high-Q, a protective layer against contaminants, and portability to microtoroid resonator based devices. We tested the robustness of the packaged device under various conditions and demonstrated its capability for thermal sensing.