:mil:`Q` > Million Optical Microresonators on Silicon Chips

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Speaker(s): Kerry Vahala

A novel laser processing method has been applied to create optical micro-resonators having Q factors as high as 500 million on silicon wafers. The combination of Ultra-high-Q and small mode volume opens up new applications for wafer based resonators. In this talk I will first review the processing and passive optical properties of these devices and then describe their application to demonstrate micro Raman and micro OPOs on a chip as well as rare-earth-doped lasers on silicon. Finally, recent results concerning the observation of radiation-pressure-driven micro-mechanical oscillation at RF rates in these structures will be described.

Colloquium

Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.