Loss characterization in microcavities using the thermal bistability effect

Abstract

We demonstrate a powerful method based on the thermal bistability effect to characterize distinct loss mechanisms limiting the quality factor of microresonators. The relative importance of absorption and scattering losses are investigated in toroidal microcavities using this technique. Empirical results on thermal nonlinearity of these structures have been used to study the interaction of microtoroids with their ambient environment.

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