Novel Whispering Gallery Mode Microresonators and Waveguide Designs for Applications in Integrated Quantum Optics

Rico Henze

ISBN 978-3-8325-3906-1
244 pages, year of publication: 2015
price: 51.00 €
Novel Whispering Gallery Mode Microresonators and Waveguide Designs for Applications in Integrated Quantum Optics

This thesis deals with the investigation of novel resonator and waveguide designs with regard to their applicability in experimental quantum optics. As especially the light-matter interaction on smallest scales is in the foreground here, the at most compact and low-loss experimental setups are required for the observation of the occurring quantum effects. By using microintegration with optical and electronic components, highest levels of controllability and precision can be achieved.

In focus of this work are the so-called whispering gallery mode microresonators. These devices allow concentration and storage of light within highly confined volumes. The occurring energy densities are the basis of an effective interaction between the light field and its environment. Due to the extreme quality factors and necessary compactness of such systems, highly precise resonance tuning is required. Therefore, in this work microresonators based on various material systems are particularly examined for their tuning abilities.

In addition to the resonators, highly efficient coupling mechanisms for the excitation and readout of these structures are necessary for the later use of such systems. Therefore, precise resonator adapted waveguide designs are also required. In this work, novel silica- and polymer-based waveguide designs were developed and examined for their optical properties. For these two systems, waveguide creation and quantum optical applicability is successfully demonstrated. Plasmonic waveguides and alternative waveguide designs based on nitrides offer further interesting possibilities for quantum optics experiments. Besides these two waveguide designs, in this work also a corresponding coupler design is presented and investigated.