Micro-optical resonators and applications in optoelectronic oscillator

Whispering gallery mode resonators are attractive elements for photonics applications, since they offer extremely high quality factors (as high as 1010) with a small size. We have applied microresonators in the realization of a high performance, and small size optoelectronic oscillator (OEO). Specifically, we have studied the use of microspherical resonators as the optical delay element in the optoelectronic feedback loop of the OEO, and a highly efficient lithium niobate modulator based on a micro-resonator.