Thermo-Optic Response and Optical Bistablility of Integrated High-Index Doped Silica Ring Resonators

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Dec 11;23(24):9767. doi: 10.3390/s23249767.

Abstract

The engineering of thermo-optic effects has found broad applications in integrated photonic devices, facilitating efficient light manipulation to achieve various functionalities. Here, we perform both an experimental characterization and a theoretical analysis of these effects in integrated microring resonators made from high-index doped silica, which have had many applications in integrated photonics and nonlinear optics. By fitting the experimental results with theory, we obtain fundamental parameters that characterize their thermo-optic performance, including the thermo-optic coefficient, the efficiency of the optically induced thermo-optic process, and the thermal conductivity. The characteristics of these parameters are compared to those of other materials commonly used for integrated photonic platforms, such as silicon, silicon nitride, and silica. These results offer a comprehensive insight into the thermo-optic properties of doped silica-based devices. Understanding these properties is essential for efficiently controlling and engineering them in many practical applications.

Keywords: integrated optics; microring resonator; optical bistability; thermo-optic effects.

Grants and funding

This research was funded in part by the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects Programs (grant numbers DP150104327, DP190102773, and DP190101576), the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence Project Programs CE230100006, and in part by the Swinburne ECR-SUPRA program.