Polarization conversion in a silica microsphere

ORAL

Abstract

Light transmitted through a waveguide coupled to a whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonator will experience a non-linear phase shift. Microsphere WGMs can be of two orthogonal polarizations, and they are non-degenerate. We can exploit the non-degeneracy of the modes and the induced phase shift to convert the incoming polarization to its orthogonal one with high efficiency. We have experimentally demonstrated a conversion efficiency of 75\% on a silica microsphere.

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Authors

  • Pablo Bianucci

    Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin

  • Chris Fietz

    Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin

  • John W. Robertson

    Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin

  • Gennady Shvets

    Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin

  • Chih-Kang Shih

    Physics Department, University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at Austin; Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at Austin