Thesis presented June 14, 2012

Abstract:
This work consisted in developing a fabrication process of silica microtoroids on a silicon chip (steps of lithography and etching in clean room for the realization of microdisks, set up of an optical bench to form a microtoroid with a reflow treatment of a silica microdisk by a CO₂-laser), setting up an optical bench to measure the linewidth of their optical resonances at 1.55 µm and finally, exploring light emitters integration in these cavities such as silicon and germanium. Very high quality-factors (Q) close to 10⁸ at 1.55µm have been measured on microtoroids. These realizations are very close to the State of the art and validate both the fabrication of these cavities and the optical bench to measure the linewidth of their Whispering Gallery Modes (WGM). With a precise control of the fabrication steps, new resonators have also been fabricated, silica microspheres on a chip with small radii (5 < r < 14µm). An in-depth study of these last ones is presented. Q-factors close to 10⁸ have also been measured on microspheres. WGM cavities with a SiO_x: Er layer (silicon nanoclusters in silica with erbium ions) are studied by photoluminescence. Coupling of these light emitters to WGM is observed in visible and near infrared at room temperature. A work of coupling of germanium to WGM began and seems promising.

Keywords:
Silicon, Whispering gallery modes, Microcavities

On-line thesis.