title: Quality-factor enhancement of supermodes in coupled microdisks.
abstract: We investigate the optical modes in a coupled pair of semiconductor microdisks in symmetric and asymmetric configurations both experimentally and theoretically. While the quality factors of coupled first- and second-order whispering gallery modes (WGMs) show a conventional crossing, the quality factors of the same-order WGMs reveal an interesting splitting behavior, leading to the formation of high- and low-quality supermodes. Our results are reproduced by numerical simulations, and an explanation based on optical interference is suggested. Quality-factor splitting is a subtle phenomenon that might help to design microarchitectures for efficient optical coupling in cavity quantum electrodynamic experiments.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, IFW Dresden, Helmholtzstrasse 20, 01069 Dresden, Germany. m.benyoucef@physik.uni‐kassel.de
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Benyoucef
authors.forename: J-B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiersig
authors.forename: O G
authors.initials: OG
authors.lastname: Schmidt