Strong optical coupling between 3D confined resonant modes in microtube cavities

Coupled whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) optical microcavities have been extensively explored to tune the resonant eigenfrequencies and spatial distributions of the optical modes, finding many unique photonic applications in a variety of fields, such as nonlinear optics, laser physics, and non-Hermitian photonics. As one type of WGM microcavities, microtube cavities with axial potential wells support 3D confined resonances by circulating light along the microtube cross-section and axis simultaneously, which offers a promising possibility to explore multidimensional and multichannel optical coupling. In this thesis, the optical coupling of 3D confined resonant modes is investigated in coupled microtube cavities fabricated by self-rolling of prestrained nanomembranes. In the first coupling system, multiple sets of 3D optical modes are generated in a single microtube cavity owing to nanogap induced resonant trajectory splitting. The large overlap of optical fields in the split resonant trajectories triggers strong optical coupling of the 3D confined resonant modes. The spectra anticrossing feature and changing-over of one group of coupled fundamental modes are demonstrated as direct evidence of strong coupling. The spatial optical field distribution of 3D coupling modes was experimentally mapped upon the strong coupling regime, which allows direct observation of the energy transfer process between two hybrid states. Numerical calculations based on a quasi-potential model and the mode detuning process are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. On this basis, monolithically integrated twin microtube cavities are proposed to achieve the collective coupling of two sets of 3D optical modes. Owing to the aligned twin geometries, two sets of 3D optical modes in twin microtubes are spectrally and spatially matched, by which both the fundamental and higher-order axial modes are respectively coupled with each other. Multiple groups of the coupling modes provide multiple effective channels for energy exchange between coupled microcavities, which are illustrated by the measured spatial optical field distributions. The spectral anticrossing and changing-over features of each group of coupled modes are revealed in experiments and calculations, indicating the occurrence of strong coupling. In addition, the simulated 3D mode profiles of twin microcavities confirm the collective strong coupling behavior, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. Our work provides a compact and robust scheme for realizing 3D optical coupling, which is of high interest for promising applications such as 3D non-Hermitian systems and multi-channel optical signal processing