Optical mode localization sensing based on fiber-coupled ring resonators

Abstract

Mode localization is widely used in coupled micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) resonators for ultra-sensitive sensing. Here, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, we experimentally demonstrate the phenomenon of optical mode localization in fiber-coupled ring resonators. For an optical system, resonant mode splitting happens when multiple resonators are coupled. Localized external perturbation applied to the system will cause uneven energy distributions of the split modes to the coupled rings, this phenomenon is called the optical mode localization. In this paper, two fiber-ring resonators are coupled. The perturbation is generated by two thermoelectric heaters. We define the normalized amplitude difference between the two split modes as: (TM1−TM2)/TM1×100%. It is found that this value can be varied from 2.5% to 22.5% when the temperature are changed by the value from 0K to 8.5K. This brings a ∼ 2.4%/K variation rate, which is three orders of magnitude greater than the variation rate of the frequency over temperature changes of the resonator due to thermal perturbation. The measured data reach good agreement with theoretical results, which demonstrates the feasibility of optical mode localization as a new sensing mechanism for ultra-sensitive fiber temperature sensing.