SNAP microresonators introduced by strong bending of optical fibers

Abstract

We introduce a new method of the fabrication of surface nanoscale axial photonic (SNAP) microresonators through strong bending of an optical fiber. We experimentally demonstrate that geometric deformation and refractive index variation induced by bending is sufficient for the formation of a SNAP bottle resonator with nanoscale effective radius variation (ERV) along the fiber axis. In our experiment, we bend the optical fiber into a loop and investigate the properties of the fabricated tunable bottle resonator as a function of the loop dimensions. We find that the introduced ERV is approximately proportional to the local curvature of the loop, while the ERV maximum is proportional to the maximum of the loop curvature squared. The advantages of the demonstrated method are its simplicity, robustness, and ability to mechanically tune introduced resonant structures. This is of crucial importance for the creation of robust and tunable SNAP devices for applications in optical classical and quantum signal processing and ultraprecise sensing.