Impact of cavity spectrum on span in microresonator frequency combs.

We experimentally study the factors that limit the span in frequency combs derived from the crystalline whispering gallery mode resonators. We observe that cavity dispersion is the key property that governs the parameters of the combs resulting from cascaded four wave mixing process. Two different regimes of comb generation are observed depending on the precise cavity dispersion behavior at the pump wavelength.

Whispering gallery mode resonators augmented with engraved diffraction gratings.

We report the demonstration of whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators augmented with diffraction gratings. We apply focused ion beam (FIB) methods to precisely engrave a surface grating directly into the perimeter of a crystalline disc. The grating provides a simple and highly directional free-space coupling mechanism with superior stability to evanescent coupling techniques.

Focused ion beam engineered whispering gallery mode resonators with open cavity structure.

We report the realization of an open cavity whispering gallery mode optical resonator, in which the circulating light traverses a free space gap. We utilize focused ion beam microfabrication to precisely cut a 10 μm wide notch into the perimeter of a crystalline disc. We have shown that this modified resonator structure supports high quality modes, and demonstrated qualify factor, Q ~/= 10(6), limited by the notch surface roughness due to the ion milling process.

Frequency comb from a microresonator with engineered spectrum.

We demonstrate that by varying the ratio between the linewidth and dispersion of a whispering gallery mode resonator we are able to control the number N of free spectral ranges separating the first generated comb sidebands from the pump. We observed combs with N = 19 and N = 1. For the comb with N = 1 we have achieved a span of over 200 nm using a 0.