ABSTRACT

Optical microresonators [1-5] that partially conne light by total internal reection (TIR) at the microresonator sidewalls are elegant micro-photonic structures. Such TIR-based resonators have demonstrated high-Q resonances and can often be realized by means of conventional fabrication techniques. Although early work on optical microresonators dates back more than six decades [6-8], many high-impact microresonator technologies from university and industry laboratories only came out in the 1990s. Recent progress in microresonator technology is in part fueled by the availability of advanced fabrication techniques for patterning ne structures on various material systems. Notably, we see microresonator-based lasers [9-16] in different material systems and in different cavity shapes. We also see microresonator-based lters [17-20], switches [21,22], and modulators [19,23,24] for next-generation wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical communications. Moreover, refractive-index-based biochemical sensors using microresonators are also attracting considerable research interest [25-28].