Chemically etched ultrahigh-Q wedge-resonator on a silicon chip

Abstract

Ultrahigh-Q optical resonators are being studied across a wide range of fields, including quantum information, nonlinear optics, cavity optomechanics and telecommunications(1-7). Here, we demonstrate a new resonator with a record Q-factor of 875 million for on-chip devices. The fabrication of our device avoids the requirement for a specialized processing step, which in microtoroid resonators(8) has made it difficult to control their size and achieve millimetre-and centimetre-scale diameters. Attaining these sizes is important in applications such as microcombs and potentially also in rotation sensing. As an application of size control, stimulated Brillouin lasers incorporating our device are demonstrated. The resonators not only set a new benchmark for the Q-factor on a chip, but also provide, for the first time, full compatibility of this important device class with conventional semiconductor processing. This feature will greatly expand the range of possible 'system on a chip' functions enabled by ultrahigh-Q devices.