Encapsulation of a fiber taper coupled microtoroid resonator in a polymer matrix

Abstract

We encapsulated a high-quality (Q) factor optical whispering gallery mode (WGM) microtoroid resonator together with its side coupled fiber taper inside a low refractive index polymer, achieving a final Q higher than 10^7. Packaging provides stable resonator-fiber taper coupling, long-term maintenance of high-Q, a protective layer against contaminants, and portability to microtoroid resonator based devices. We tested the robustness of the packaged device under various conditions and demonstrated its capability for thermal sensing.