title: Whispering gallery mode microsphere resonator integrated inside a microstructured optical fiber.
abstract: A compact and robust scheme for broadband excitation of whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonances into a microsphere is demonstrated. A polymer microsphere (10 μm) is encapsulated into the capillary of a microstructured optical fiber, in direct contact with the guiding core. Such a configuration allows efficient and reproducible excitation of the in-MOF-microsphere resonator that is characterized by two launch/collection schemes: core input/scattering output, and sphere input/core output. The latter allows an excitation of the microsphere WGMs externally to the fiber. Numerically calculated WGM spectra are in agreement with experiments. Q factors in the range of 10(3) are typically measured.
authors.affiliation: Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL), P.O. Box 1315, Heraklion 71 110, Greece.
authors.forename: Kyriaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kosma
authors.forename: Gianluigi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zito
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.forename: Stavros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pissadakis