Encapsulation of a microtoroid resonator side-coupled to a fiber taper into a polymer matrix

We demonstrate that a whispering gallery mode (WGM) microtoroidal optical resonator retains its high quality factor Q > 10
⁷
when encapsulated into a low index polymer matrix. We tested the packaged system in water with various salt concentrations and temperatures, and in air under various room conditions, showing that the polymer package keeps the resonator intact from degrading effects of environment, providing a robust and stable resonator-fiber coupling. The developed packaging technique provides portability to on-chip WGM resonators, enabling operations in the field.