Femtosecond laser written diamond waveguide excitation of the whispering gallery modes in a silicon microsphere

Abstract

We demonstrate light coupling from femtosecond laser written diamond waveguide operating at the telecommunication wavelengths to a silicon microsphere resonator. Type II waveguides are written on a diamond platform and Fabry-Pérot resonances are excited in the diamond waveguides by bare fiber coupling in and out of the waveguide. The Fabry-Pérot resonances have a free spectral range of 87 pm, and a maximum Q-factor of 3.9 × 104. The diamond waveguide is used to excite TM-polarized whispering gallery modes of the 1 mm silicon microsphere, since the type II waveguides support TM modes better as compared to TE modes. The whispering gallery mode spacing is measured as 0.257 nm and the highest Q-factor is 6.2 × 104. This evanescent coupling method to high Q-factor silicon microsphere resonances by femtosecond laser written diamond waveguides can be further used for filtering and sensing applications in various photonic lightwave circuits.