Hybrid silica-polymer ultra-high-Q microresonators

Ultra-high-quality (UHQ) factor optical cavities have numerous applications throughout engineering and science. Incorporating active elements into these UHQ cavities to create dynamic devices would extend their applicability; however, it is inherently difficult to develop an active UHQ device. Ultra-thin films formed from optically active polymers provide one route to overcome this limitation. In the present work, hybrid devices composed of UHQ planar optical cavities with ultra-thin films are fabricated on a silicon wafer. Using finite element method simulations, the optical field overlap between the cavity and the polymer film is modeled and experimentally verified using two polymers: poly( methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene. These hybrid devices have demonstrated material-limited Q factors above 10(7). (C) 2010 Optical Society of America