Whispering-gallery-mode excitation in a microsphere by use of an etched cavity on a multimode fiber end.

In this Letter, we demonstrate a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microsphere resonator. The device is fabricated by fusion splicing a section of no-core fiber with multimode fiber (MMF) and single-mode fiber at its two ends. The open end of the MMF is etched to create an arc-shaped cavity, with a microsphere glued at its bottom. When the arc of the cavity bottom and microsphere surface are tangent, part of the incident light is coupled into the microsphere and travels exactly one circle before being directed back to the MMF core along the tangent line and exciting the WGM. The device has a Q-factor of 1.21×10 ⁴ , and is robust in structure and low in cost.