Ultra-high-Q wedge-resonator on a silicon chip

Ultra-high-Q optical resonators are being studied across a wide range of research subjects including quantum information, nonlinear optics, cavity optomechanics, and telecommunications. Here, we demonstrate a new, resonator on-a-chip with a record Q factor of 875 million, surpassing even microtoroids. Significantly, these devices avoid a highly specialized processing step that has made it difficult to integrate microtoroids with other photonic devices and to also precisely control their size. Thus, these devices not only set a new benchmark for Q factor on a chip, but also provide, for the first time, full compatibility of this important device class with conventional semiconductor processing. This feature will greatly expand the possible kinds of system on a chip functions enabled by ultra-high-Q devices.