Jiang Xuefeng, Yang Lan
Department of Electrical and System Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130 USA.
Light Sci Appl. 2020 Feb 24;9:24. doi: 10.1038/s41377-019-0239-6. eCollection 2020.
Optical whispering-gallery-mode microresonators with ultrahigh quality factors and small mode volumes have played an important role in modern physics. They have been demonstrated as a diverse platform for a wide range of applications in photonics, such as nonlinear optics, optomechanics, quantum optics, and information processing. Thermal behaviors induced by power build-up in the resonators or environmental perturbations are ubiquitous in high-quality-factor whispering-gallery-mode resonators and have played an important role in their operation for various applications. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of laser-field-induced thermal nonlinear effects, including thermal bistability and thermal oscillation. With the help of the thermal bistability effect, optothermal spectroscopy and optical nonreciprocity have been demonstrated. By tuning the temperature of the environment, the resonant mode frequency will shift, which can also be used for thermal sensing/tuning applications. The thermal locking technique and thermal imaging mechanisms are discussed briefly. Finally, we review some techniques employed to achieve thermal stability in a high-quality-factor resonator system.
具有超高品质因数和小模式体积的光学回音壁模式微谐振器在现代物理学中发挥了重要作用。它们已被证明是光子学中广泛应用的多样化平台，如非线性光学、光机械学、量子光学和信息处理。由谐振器中的功率积累或环境扰动引起的热行为在高品质因数回音壁模式谐振器中普遍存在，并在其各种应用的运行中发挥了重要作用。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了激光场诱导的热非线性效应的机制，包括热双稳性和热振荡。借助热双稳性效应，已经证明了光热光谱学和光学非互易性。通过调节环境温度，谐振模式频率将发生偏移，这也可用于热传感/调谐应用。简要讨论了热锁定技术和热成像机制。最后，我们综述了一些用于在高品质因数谐振器系统中实现热稳定性的技术。
