Abstract

The thermo-optic effect has been utilized to modulate the refractive index dynamically within a whispering gallery mode resonator. Modulation with a large tuning range is mostly performed for mode locking and dynamic control of the optical path at a modulation frequency as low as several hertz, while high-frequency modulation up to megahertz is mainly exploited in optical switching devices with small tuning range. Here, we introduce the response functions theoretically to describe the dynamic response of temperature changes in the mode volume and the resonator body, respectively. This result is verified experimentally in silica microspherical resonators. The dependence of the tuning range on the modulation frequency is achieved. This knowledge could pave the way toward more practical control of refractive index in microresonators.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

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