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Updated: Mar 28, 2026

Microwave Photonics Systems Based on Whispering-gallery-mode Resonators
Published on: August 5, 2013
Observation of energy oscillation between strongly-coupled counter-propagating ultra-high Q whispering gallery modes
Abstract:
We report the first experimental observation of an energy oscillation between two coupled ultra-high Q whispering gallery modes in the time domain. Two counter-propagating whispering gallery modes in a silica toroid microcavity were employed for this purpose. The combination of a large coupling coefficient between the two modes and an ultra-high Q factor, which creates a large Γ value of > 10, results in a clear energy oscillation. Our measurement is based on a drop-port measurement technique, which enables us to observe the light energy in the two modes directly. The oscillation period measured in the time domain precisely matched that inferred from mode splitting in the frequency domain, and the measured results showed excellent agreement with results calculated with the developed numerical model.
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