Experimental demonstration of waveguide-coupled round-cornered octagonal microresonators in silicon nitride

We report laterally waveguide-coupled octagonal microresonators with designed round resonator corners in silicon nitride. We demonstrate nearly single-mode add-drop filter characteristics, when 50-mum-size round-cornered octagonal microresonators are used, with an optimum coupling efficiency exceeding 96%, a finesse of similar to30, and a Q of similar to6400. Our experiments also reveal two unforeseen phenomena in certain microresonator shapes: a pronounced drop in coupling efficiency and resonance notches in the drop spectrum. These device characteristics hint at the recently postulated multiple orbit interference in waveguide-coupled polygonal microresonators. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.