<title>Spherical microcavity resonator fabrication based on laser technology</title>

Abstract

We discuss our recent experiments that aim at fabrication of optical microsphere resonators and methods for their quality estimation. First, free space laser melting technique (FSLMT) was investigated. Different regimes of laser action and its corresponding results were discussed. Secondly, we fabricated optical microsphere resonators of different sizes and optical glasses (including active glasses) using FSLMT. Whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in fabricated microsphere resonators were then observed in microspheres' fluorescence spectrums, the free spectral ranges were in good agreement with diameters of microspheres. Furthermore, WGMs of microsphere resonators were excited by an optical fiber-taper coupler to assess the microspheres' Q-factor. Applications of optical microsphere resonators such as microlaser, simple block for studying emission and nonlinear optical effects were demonstrated.