Chalcogenide Microsphere Fabricated From Fiber Tapers Using Contact With a High-Temperature Ceramic Surface

The fabrication and characterization of a chalcogenide glass microsphere resonator has been demonstrated. At wavelengths near 1550 nm, whispering gallery mode resonances can be efficiently excited in a 74-μm-diameter chalcogenide glass microsphere via evanescent coupling using a tapered silica glass fiber with a waist diameter of circa 2 μm. Resonances with Q-factors greater than 10
⁵
were observed. Due to the high nonlinearity properties of the chalcogenide material and the ease of fabrication process, chalcogenide microspheres offer the potential for robustly assembled fully integrated photonic devices.