Resonant light coupling to microspheres using Gaussian beams of optical fibers

Abstract

Morphology dependent resonances of dielectric microspheres are used for polarization insensitive optical channel dropping from an optical fiber half coupler to a silicon photodetector in the M-band. The dropped channels are observed in the elastic scattering and the transmission spectra. The highest quality factor morphology dependent resonances have a repetitive channel separation of 0.14 nm and a linewidth of 0.06 nm. The filter drops approximately 10% (0.5 dB) of the power at the resonance wavelength. The power detected by the photodiode is estimated to be approximately 3.5% of the power in the fiber.