Encapsulation of a Fiber Taper Coupled Microtoroid Resonator in a Polymer Matrix

We encapsulate 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 test the robustness of the packaged device under various conditions and demonstrate its capability for thermal sensing.