Potentials with partly constant free spectral range and their application to SNAP microresonators

Abstract

Propagation of whispering gallery modes in Surface Nanoscale Axial Photonics (SNAP) microresonators, fabricated at the optical fiber surface, is commonly described by a one-dimensional wave equation, resembling the Schrödinger equation, where the fiber cutoff frequency (CF) varying along the fiber length plays the role of potential and the light frequency plays the role of energy. Of particular importance for applications including frequency comb generation, frequency conversion, and signal processing are SNAP microresonators with constant free spectrum range (FSR). Here we note that, in addition to CF potentials with a globally constant FSR, the potentials having constant FSR confined within a specific spectral region may be sufficient or, in certain cases, preferable for a range of applications. We describe such potentials in semiclassical approximation and analyze their properties considering representative examples.