LESS-THAN-1 DB PER METER PROPAGATION LOSS OF SILICA WAVE-GUIDES MEASURED USING A RING-RESONATOR

Phosphorus doped silica on silicon waveguide propagation loss, bend loss and their polarization dependence have been measured using a set of different radii ring resonators. For a 30-mm ring radius a finesse of 132 was measured and the inferred propagation loss was 0.85 dB/m, the lowest value yet reported. To characterize the finesse of the high Q resonator we proposed and used for the first time a stable Er+3 fiber grating laser source which was thermally tuned. This configuration provides improved and accurate measurements capability for finesse values in the range well beyond 100.