Transition from electromagnetically-induced transparency to absorption in a single microresonator

Abstract

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and absorption (EIA) are two phenomena that can be observed in whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) optical microresonators. Transition from EIT to EIA has potential applications in optical switching, filtering and sensing. In this paper an observation of the transition from EIT to EIA in a single WGM microresonator is presented. A fiber taper is used to couple light into and out of a sausage-like microresonator (SLM) that contains two coupled optical modes with significantly different quality factors. By stretching the SLM axially the resonance frequencies of the two coupled modes are tuned to the same, a transition from EIT to EIA is then observed in the transmission spectra when the fiber taper is moved closer to the SLM. It is the special spatial distribution of the optical modes of the SLM that provide a theoretical basis for the observation.