Indian Journal of Pure & Applied Physics

Vol. 61, July 2023, pp. 601-621

DOI: 10.56042/ijpap.v61i7.110

Microring Resonators and its Applications

Sauradeep Kara, Sridhar Singhala, Prasanna Paithankarb & Shailendra K Varshneya*
a
Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur,
Kharagpur-721 302, WB, India
b
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur-721 302, WB, India

Received 1 November 2022; accepted 12 June 2023

Microring resonators (MRRs) are the most sought on-chip optical components after the optical waveguides due to versatile
usages and functionalities whether in linear or nonlinear and quantum properties. A simple MRR geometry consists of one or
two straight waveguides and circular or bent waveguides. Due to huge potential and versatility, we provide a comprehensive
review on microring resonators that encompasses from material selection to applications and various configurations.

Keywords: Microring Resonators, Optical Waveguides, On-chip Optical components

1 Introduction spheres with high quality4 factor, Q, were fabricated

The 21st century can be regarded as the century of by a simple approach where the tip of an optical fiber
Photonics while the 20th century has been considered was melt to produce a resonator. Several approaches
of Electronics. Scientific community have been such as electrical arc heating, laser re-flow (by usage
particularly interested to explore the field of photonics of a CO2 laser), hydrogen flames were utilized to
due to distinctive advantages that includes stability, produce spheroidal silica resonators with micron scale
scalability, compactness, and low-power consumption. diameters3,5–9. Spherical resonators with smooth
Sophisticated fabrication technologies have paved the surfaces which are capable of suppressing scattering
path towards development of multi-functional losses in the resonator could be successfully
photonic devices in variety of material platforms. The fabricated by the aforementioned techniques. Apart
most successful application of optical technologies from micro-spheres, bulk resonators have also been
has been the optical fibers after the invention of laser. fabricated in the disc and toroid shapes6. With respect
Efforts have been made to explore the small to micro-spheres, micro-toroid and micro-discs have
dimension (m to nm) optical devices whether is it an less number of degenerate modes which makes them
optical waveguide made of silicon or other materials favourable to control mode-crossing behaviour10. The
or filters, sensors, and modulators. Over last two fabrication of such resonators is via a lithographic
decades, optical microresonators is finding a huge process where a silica layer is grown on a silicon
space in research due to plethora of applications. substrate followed by dry etching6. Resonators in the
Rudimentarily, an optical resonator is a cavity which toroidal and disc shapes have shown to produce
allows light to circulate within itself in a closed path. quality factor of 5×10810. Complementary Metal
Such resonators have been fabricated in various Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) compatible on chip
geometrical shapes by utilizing different materials. MRRs have attracted researchers over many years.
Micro-ring resonator (MRR) is a class of optical This is because on-chip MRRs offer huge benefits
resonator which produce equidistant dips in the such as scalability, small footprint, improved
resonant spectrum at wavelengths where the phase- performance and several others similar to the ones
matching condition is fulfilled1. Initially fabrication achieved in on-chip electronic integrated devices. The
technologies capable of manufacturing bulk optical standard configuration of an add-drop integrated ring
resonators was developed. Spherical resonators were resonator which is used till date was proposed way
the first of its kind to be fabricated and found usage in back in the year 196911. This basic resonator
micron-scale bulk optical devices2,3. Silica micro- configuration has been shown in Fig. 1(a), where two
——————— straight waveguides are in close proximity with a ring
*Corresponding author: (E-mail: [email protected]) waveguide, which results in evanescent coupling of
602 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

one revolution around the ring. Thus, if β is the

propagation constant and L is the circumference of the
ring, then the following relation holds true1,19:
 L  2m … (1)
2
neff L  2m … (2)

Here, m is an integer. For a MRR with a circular
periphery L = 2πR, where R is the radius of the ring.
At the resonance frequency light tends to get trapped
inside the resonator due to which there is a dip in the
transmission. The spacing between adjacent resonant
frequencies belonging to longitudinal modes m and
m+1 is known as Free Spectral Range (FSR) which is
given by:
c
f FSR , m  … (3)
ng  m  L

where, ng  neff   dn is the group index.

d
Fig. 1 — Schematic of on chip MRR in (a) add-drop (b) all-pass The quality factor, Q, of the resonator is defined as
(c) Parallely coupled (d) racetrack (e) serially coupled (f) off-axis the ratio of the energy (ξ) stored in a resonator to the
concentric coupled configuration16. The shaded region in the
figures indicate the coupling gap(s). energy dissipated per cycle, which is normalized to
the angular resonance frequency m, as,
the field into the ring waveguide. The shaded region
m
in the figures indicate the coupling gap. With a single Q … (4)
bus, the MRR configuration is referred as all-pass  d dt
configuration (Fig. 1(b)). Different on-chip MRR
geometries have been explored in literature which 1.2 Analytical Modeling of an MRR
include racetrack-shaped MRR12 (Fig. 1(d)), vertically The MRR can be analytically modelled using the
coupled MRR13, cascaded MRR (serial and well-known unitary transfer matrix (U-TM)
parallel14,15 (Fig. 1(e),(c)), off-axis MRR16 (Fig. 1(f)), method20,21 which helps in theoretically visualizing
MRR with distributed Bragg grating17 and tapered the transmission spectrum of a MRR. To illustrate
MRR18. Each resonator geometry has its own this method, a schematic of an add-drop racetrack
advantages. For instance, the coupling gap between MRR is depicted in Fig. 2(a), where t and κ are
the bus and the ring waveguides is very crucial in the self- and cross- power coupling coefficients
determining the quality of resonance. The gap can be of the propagating fields in the resonator, respectively
increased by using a racetrack configuration which and g is the gap between the bus and the ring
enlarges the coupling distance by using a straight arm waveguides, Lst and R are the lengths of the straight
in the coupling region12. The off-axis coupled MRR arm and the radius of a MRR, respectively. The
proposed in16 has been observed to generate extra relation between the incident and reflected field
transmission dips due to phase matching between phaser of the input waveguide to the transmitted and
inner and outer rings, also relaxes the coupling gap coupled field phasor of the output waveguide is given
between the waveguides while maintaining large by the U-TM. The generalized U-TM can be obtained
extinction and high Q-factor. from the following expression 22,23:
 t    cos   j sin   … (5)
1.1 Basic working principle of an MMR U  * * 
As mentioned earlier, an all pass MRR consists of a   t    j sin  cos  
bus waveguide that is evanescently coupled to a ring and α ≡ KLeff, where Leff is the effective coupling
waveguide. Light revolves over the circumference of length which is defined as the length of the coupling
the ring where constructive interference occurs upon region between the racetrack ring and the straight
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 603

Fig. 2 — (a) Schematic of on chip add-drop racetrack MRR with indication of geometric parameters and coupling coefficients (the encircled
portions indicate the coupling regions), Transmission spectra of (b) single (c) serial coupled (d) parallel coupled racetrack MRR(s).

waveguide and is determined by the straight arm

PTh max  4 | t |2 /(1 | t |2 )2 … (8)
length Lst. The factor K = /2L, Lis the ideal
coupling length, estimated by the gap, g between the Pdr min  (1 | t |)2 / (1 | t |2 )2 … (9)
bus and the ring waveguides. The Through (T) and
Drop (D) phasers are given by the following The U-TM approach does not consider the phase
equations, difference ϕ between t and κ, which depends on the
propagation length of the circulating field in the MRR
   t e  j   j 2 Leff neff and affects the resonance quality of the transmission
T  t1  1 2 2  j e … (6) spectrum. The information of ϕ is generally included
 1  t1t2 e  in the “through” and “drop port” transmission phasers
by considering the mode-coupling coefficients of the
   e  j 2   j 2 Leff neff
D   1 2  j  e  … (7) even and odd modes of the propagating waves. Such
1  t1t2 e  formulation is known as the nonunitary transfer
matrix (NU-TM)21. Based on the above formulation,
2 neff
The phase factor θ is given as   L where, the transmission spectrum of a typical racetrack MRR
 with Lst= 10 µm and R= 5 µm has been shown in
∆L and neff are the path length traversed by the optical Fig. 2(b). The spectrum consists of equidistant
wave in one round-trip and the effective refractive resonant dips spaced at the FSR. The transmission
index, respectively. The subscripts 1 and 2 denote spectra corresponding to serially and parallely
two coupling junctions in the upper and lower branch coupled racetrack MRRs (similar to the configuration
of the MRR, respectively. For a symmetric MRR shown in Fig. 1(e) and 1(c)) has been shown in
t = t1 = t2 and κ = κ1 = κ2. At resonance, θ = 2nπ Fig. 2(c) and (d), respectively. As expected the
(n being an integer) for which ideally, the spectra undergoes a splitting in the resonant dips due
“through” and “drop” power are zero and unity, to inter-coupling of fields between multiple rings.
respectively. By this method, maximum through As mentioned earlier, the coupling of light between
power (𝑃 and minimum drop power (𝑃 the bus and the ring waveguides of an MRR is a very
can be evaluated as, crucial issue, and the coupling gap g mentioned in
604 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

Fig. 2(a) requires precise optimization to ensure a larger microring. A high Q-factor (>105) and a large
proper operation of the MRR. Based on the field transmission notch depth (>10dB) has been reported
coupled from the bus to the ring waveguide, three for the NN-MRR. The proposed resonator is compact
regimes of operation of the MRR has been identified and fabrication tolerant. The schematic representation
1,20
, (i) under-coupled (t < κ),(ii) over-coupled (t > κ) of an all-pass NN-MRR for three concentric
and critically-coupled (t = κ). Different coupling microrings of radii R1, R2 and R3 has been shown in
regimes are specific to various applications. For Fig. 3(a). The dashed rectangular boxes represent
instance several nonlinear applications require the three coupling regions CR1, CR2 and CR3
over-coupling regime24 whereas for applications corresponding to the junctions between the bus and
including sensing, switching, modulation and so on the outer rings (radius R1), the outer and the first inner
require the critical coupling regime. ring (radius R2), the two inner rings (of radii R2 and
It should be pointed in this context that the critical R3) respectively, τp and κp, p =1,2,3 are the self- and
coupling regime yields resonances with the highest cross- coupling coefficients at three junctions. am =
extinction. However, in general, several designs are e−αmLm/2, m =1,2,3 are the internal loss factors of the
fabricated in order to attain such critical coupling due three rings. Here, αm, and Lm are the linear loss
to fabrication tolerances which stays below 5%. Such coefficient and the circumference of the ring(s),
variation affects the operation of a MRR and may turn respectively. The semi-round trip phase change for
critically coupled operation into either over or under- the three rings are ϕ1, ϕ2, and ϕ3 respectively. The
coupled regimes. Several approaches have been normalized transmission at the output (i.e. through
proposed by researchers to overcome this vital issue, port) for such an NN-MRR configuration is given by.
i.e. relaxing the stringent requirement of gap value. T3  1  a1 (i1 )2 (ei 21 11  a11 )1 … (10)
One is the usage of the RMRR configuration which
has been discussed previously. The other 1   2  a2 (i 2 )2 (ei 2 21  a2 2 )1
1
… (11)
configuration is the nested off-axis ring which has i 22
 2   3  a3 (i 3 ) (e
2
 a3 3 ) 1
… (12)
been shown in Fig. 1(f)16,25. As depicted in Fig. 1(f),
the nested nonconcentric microring resonator (NN- The transmission spectra covering the C-band has
MRR) consists of multiple microrings embedded into been shown in Fig. 3(b) for gaps of 50nm between the

Fig. 3 — (a) Schematic of NNMRR with three concentric off-axis rings, (τ1,κ1),(τ2,κ2),(τ3,κ3) are the self and cross coupling coefficients at
the three junctions CR1,CR2 and CR3. (b) Comparison between transmission spectra of NN-MRR consisting of two and three nested
rings. (c) Experimental set up where light from a tunable LASER source was coupled to the NN-MRR (Device under test: (DUT)) by
grating couplers; circulator (C) was used to protect the laser from back-reflection; Variable optical attenuator (VOA) and a fiber
polarization controller (FPC) were used to control the input power and the polarization, respectively. The output signal was divided into
two parts by a beam splitter (BS) towards a detector (D) and an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). The output power was measured by a
power meter (PM) the spectral components were recorded using the OSA. (d) Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image of dual and
three ring NN-MRR for coupling gap of 50 nm.(Images adapted from25)
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 605

rings for dual and three ring based NN-MRR. The realize energy efficient, compact, and low loss
FSR between resonance dips for rings of radii R2 modulators. Thermal and geometrical modulation
and R3 were observed to be 4.3nm and 7.5nm provide lower losses and smaller footprint as
respectively. From Fig. 3(b), mode splitting compared to carrier injection-based device33, but the
phenomena can be observed at the frequencies attained modulation speeds are slow34,35. It has been
where resonances of the individual rings of radii reported36,37 that the usage of NNMRR (detailed in the
R2 and R3 overlap. Additional notches appear due to last section) with sharp transmission notches aid in
extra phase matching because of the concentric inner realizing athermal CMOS-compatible modulators. In
rings. The experimental set-up used has been shown this review, usage of MRRs for filters and sensors
in Fig. 3(c) and the fabricated sample for two and have been elucidated in detail.
three rings have been shown in Fig. 3(d).
2.1 MRR as Optical Filters
2. Linear Applications of MRRs The foremost principal application of MRR lies in
On chip MRRs have been used for a plethora of the development of optical filters. Rudimentarily, a
linear applications ranging from couplers, filters, filter can be defined as a device that can alter the
multiplexers, sensors and modulators. For utilizing amplitude and phase of a signal in a particular
MRRs in designing couplers, proper optimization of manner. Lower radiation losses, small footprint, high
the coupling gap is the main requisite26. As evident Q-factor make MRR based devices attractive in
from the transmission spectra shown in Fig. 2 (b), the construction of compact channel filters for
sharp dips at the resonant frequency makes MRR Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) system.
effectively act as a notch filter. When a double ring Generically, filters can be classified as Finite
resonator is used as a wavelength drop filter, Impulse Response (FIR) and Infinite Impulse
switching of the resonance between the ON and OFF Response (IIR) filters. As the name suggests, the
state becomes possible by detuning the rings with impulse response h(t) of FIR filters stays for a
respect to one another. Such an MRR has been used finite duration of time whereas it continues
as a wavelength-selective switch27. Modulation is indefinitely for IIR filters. Researchers have realized
typically brought about by change in refractive index FIR optical filters by directional couplers and
and can be divided into electro-refractive or electro- Mach-Zender interferometers23,38. IIR filters require
absorptive modulators depending on whether the a feedback mechanism for the sustenance of the
change is being brought in real or imaginary part of impulse response over a prolonged duration. The
the refractive index. Precise control of absorption positive feedback in the MRRs make them suitable
directly modulates the intensity of propagating signal, for designing IIR filters.
which is the case in electro-absorptive modulators. The z-transform analysis has been useful in the
For the electro- refractive scenario, change in generalized analysis of spectral response of ring
refractive index is converted to intensity modulation resonator filters. The unit variable z−1 denotes the
through two types of devices, (1) interference using round-trip phase delay of the resonator. For an add
Mach-Zender interferometer (MZI) and (2) resonator- drop MRR, the simplified schematic for z-transform
based devices, which exhibit change in the resonant analysis is shown in Fig. 4(a) and 4(b). The
condition due to change in refractive index.MZI based transmission at the drop port can be obtained by the
modulators due to large footprint gives rise to higher generic transfer function in the z-domain as,
insertion loss, power consumption, device area and Et 2 ( z ) 1 2  z 1
H 21   … (13)
difficulty to integrate on-chip. On the other hand, Ei1 ( z ) 1  t1t 2 z 1
MRR based devices are reasonably compact, CMOS
compatible, low power consumption, and hence Subsequently the scattering matrix in the z-domain
proven to be efficient in realizing optical which links the input and output ports, is given by the
modulators28. Modulation in case of MRR based following expression,
modulators can be brought either by change in  Et1 ( z )   Ei1 ( z ) 
temperature29 or change in the geometry30,31. Since    S RR ( z )   … (14)
modulators are key components of communication  Et 2 ( z )   Ei 2 ( z ) 
systems and optical processors32, it is necessary to where,
606 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

Fig. 4 — (a) z-domain model of the add-drop MRR, the total round-trip phase delay gets denoted by the variable z−1, (b) Two-port z-
model of add-drop MRR , the matrix SRR(z) is the scattering matrix in the z-domain which links the signals at the input and output ports.
(c) Schematic of a 6th order cascaded add-drop filter, (d) Figure illustrating sharp roll off between the pass and stop band for an 11th order
filter compared to a 3rd and 1st order filter39.

 t  t  z 1 resonator coupling coefficients 39,45. Since the spectral

1 2  z 1 
 1 2
 response is narrow and box like for higher order
 1  t1t2 z 1  t1t2 z 1 
1

S RR ( z )   … (15) filters, it is possible to drop out single frequency

1  provided the free spectral range covers the entire C-
 1 2  z t2  t1 z 
1

 1  t t  z 1 band about 35nm, which is possible for rings of size

 1 2 1  t1t2 z 1  about 2.5µm46. Fig. 3(d) shows that the filter response
The general form of the transfer function of a precisely becomes box-like with sharp roll-off
digital IIR filter in the z domain is given by, between the pass and the stop band as the order of the
filter is increased from 3 to 11, or in other words
P ( z 1 ) K 0  k 1 ( z  zk )
1M
1 when the number of cascaded rings is increased. Also,
H (z )   … (16)
it has been possible to achieve47 tuneable range
Q ( z 1 )  ( z 1  p k )
N
k 1 throughout the C-band which fulfils the one device
here, P(z ) and Q(z ) are polynomials of z−1, and
−1 −1
fits all notion.
zk and pk are the zeros and poles respectively in the While a good ring resonator could well meet
inverse z-plane. the requirements for a WDM system, in some
For designing an MRR based optical filter, the circumstances, it may lack in tolerance to
specification of the desired transfer function H is done variations in fabrication and environmental changes
in the z-domain. The location of the poles and zeros (e. g. temperature). This is particularly prevalent in
are chosen to achieve specific amplitude and phase silicon-based systems, where resonance frequencies in
characteristics of the filter. After deducing the transfer microrings are very sensitive to temperature shift due
function, a suitable MRR configuration and its to the high thermo-refractive coefficient of Si48.To
coupling coefficients are determined to deduce the accommodate temperature and fabrication variations,
spectral response. This method is referred as filter widening the bandwidth of the filter has been
synthesis problem19. The Lorentzian response of proposed as a remedy, the width being adjusted by
single resonating ring can be modified by a cascade of tuning inter-resonator coupling strengths49. However,
coupled rings to obtain higher-order filter this technique would not be applicable to WDM
characteristics40, a flat pass band may be obtained for applications as they require a narrow bandwidth.
a coupled system consisting of infinite number of While50 presents techniques to resolve this
resonators41. Higher-order filters can provide the temperature dependence in Silicon MRR devices,
suitable pass band response along with sharper roll- converting the problem of temperature dependent
offs and higher attenuation in the stopband42,43. resonance wavelength as an opportunity,51,52 propose
However, reflections at waveguide and resonators stabilised filters involving heaters for controlling
lead to ripples even for 100 coupled resonators44 The resonance wavelengths, also providing tolerance to
ripples can be mitigated by tapering the inter- fabrication errors20,53.A wide FSR is requisite for
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 607

precise filtering of the passband which maybe change in the effective refractive index ∆neff and hence
spanned over a broad continuum of frequencies. If the resonance wavelength ∆λ, which can be computed
resonance dips are closely spaced, the pass band of by the following generalized relation:
the filter designed from such an MRR would naturally neff LC
be very small. It is clearly visible from Eq.3 that FSR   … (18)
of MRR is inversely proportional to the radius of the m
ring. However, smaller bend radius increases where m is a natural number, LC is the circumference
fabrication complexity, reduces quality factor of of the ring. This equation can be written as a linear
resonance, introduces losses which increase rapidly as function of change in cladding refractive index
the radius reduces54,55 and can lead to polarization (environmental change), δnev,
effects as well56.
 ev neff 
By altering the dimensions of the cascaded rings in   … (19)
higher-order filters, it is possible to suppress ng
unwanted resonances through the Vernier effect57,58.
where, δevneff is the change in effective refractive
For a microring resonator system consisting of two
index due to change in environment. The change in
resonators, the total FSR can be obtained using,
output response of the MRR due to environmental
FSRtot  N .FSR1  M .FSR2 … (17) change can be detected by two schemes: resonant-
wavelength-shift and intensity variation scheme. A
where N and M are natural numbers which are
shift in resonance wavelength is obtained from the
relatively prime to each other59, with one such number
spectral measurement of the output optical signal,
for each closed loop,60,61. For example62 used two
which requires sophisticated and expensive setup. On
large rings of individual FSRs of 8 nm and 6 nm
the contrary, intensity-variation can be easily
respectively to obtain a total FSR of 20nm.
measured through photo detectors. Since MRRs
Researchers have been successful to achieve FSR
produce high Q resonances (i.e. resonant dips with
surpassing the C-band easily15,63–66 by this technique.
high extinction), the slope of intensity variation with
However, including multiple rings in Vernier
wavelength is very steep near the resonance
configuration require high precision and fabrication
wavelength of an MRR. This translates to a large
tolerance. Multiple ring configuration also suffers
change in detected intensity. Hence, this scheme is
from poor tuning efficiency. Another method used
easily realizable through simple and inexpensive
widely involves utilisation of a reflection element in
experimental setup and provides higher sensitivity.
the ring, producing waves in direction opposite to the
However, the intensity variation-based systems have a
original one. Gold nano-disks67 as the reflecting
smaller dynamic range70–72. Any sensor must possess
elements to obtain wider FSR has been used, whereas
high resolution, so that it can detect small
reported an MRR with Sagnac loop to enhance Q
concentration of sample as samples may often contain
factor and FSR68. Introducing new structures will
contaminants hindering detection. Various detection
increase fabrication complexities and impact density
techniques have been developed such as
of integration. It has been recently69 pointed that two
fluorescentlabel-based technique, electronics, Quartz
Fabry-Perot (FP) cavities, made by introducing gap in
Crystal Microbalances (QCM) and optical techniques.
the straight arm of the RMRR which can successfully
Optical methods have been widely explored for
produce a wide FSR.
advantages of fast detection, strong light-interaction,
2.2 MRRs for Sensing Applications high sensitivity and on-chip integrability, of which the
On-chip MRRs have been vastly exploited for MRR based technique is particularly useful. For
sensing applications. The applicability of MRRs for sensing of fluids (in chemical and bio sensors), the
sensing purposes stems from the basic relation given mechanism can be divided into two categories
in Eqn. (3) where, resonance wavelength is depending on the mechanism of obtaining light signal
proportional to the ring radius and effective refractive from the chemical domain: homogeneous sensing and
index. So, any perturbations provided to the system, surface sensing. In homogenous sensing, the analyte
through change in surrounding refractive index, is disposed over the entire resonator, which leads to a
temperature, or injecting carriers in the ring through change in the effective refractive index, and a
electro or all optical methods (pump) will lead to corresponding shift in the resonant wavelength.
608 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

The sensitivity is defined as, S =/nev. However, with the target material which produces a significant
this method is incapable of effectively differentiating change in output signal and facilitates effective
between different kinds of analytes. In surface sensing behaviour. Various resonator geometries
sensing, receptive materials are placed over the such as sphere97, ring98, MRR coupled with cavity99
surface of the resonator73, which bind with specific have been proposed. While MRR have excellent
analytes. Surface sensing is widely used in biological advantages of high Q factor, high sensitivity, ease of
sensing and diagnostics74–76. Based on similar integration in CMOS, in conventional silicon based
principles, researchers have developed sensors based MRR, due to high refractive index contrast, the
on MRRs for detection of many chemicals such as, evanescent field is low resulting in poor interaction
gases bio-toxins and microorganisms77 etc. The with the surrounding medium. Therefore, it is
procedure adopted by researchers for detection of necessary to increase the magnitude of the evanescent
some analytes have been summarized in Table 1. Here field spilling out from the core by geometrical
LOD denotes Limit of Detection which is defined as modification of the MRR.100 proposed a tapered
the lowest concentration of the analyte that can be (RMRR) for detection of metallic nanoparticles. A
detected by a sensor. For single nano-particle photonic nanofence (PNF), i.e. a ridge waveguide of
detection, many label free techniques have been sub-wavelength dimensions is connected to the
investigated, such as Surface Plasmon Resonance tapered RMRR waveguide (Fig. 5(a)). As the
(SPR) imaging94, Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) dimensions are much smaller than the conventional
enhanced microscopy95, interferometric microscopy96. input and output waveguides, field is pushed outside
Many of these techniques are also ailed by low the waveguide boundary, thus enhancing evanescent
interaction between particle and light, which is the field. Increase in evanescent field means higher
bottleneck of MRR based sensing. In micro-cavities, radiative losses, which by definition implies a
light circulates multiple times before its decay due to reduction in Q-factor. For this reason, the dimensions
losses, which allows light to interact multiple times of the PNF have been optimized (Fig. 5(b)) to produce

Table 1 — Strategies adopted by various researchers for sensing by MRRs

(Abbreviations used: MZI: Mach-Zender Interferometer, LOD: Limit of Detection, CFU: colony forming unit)
Analyte Strategy Experimental Results Year Ref
Hydrogen Si MRR enhanced MZI with Pt-WO3 receptor 0.1% vol. LOD 2019 [78]
Ammonia Graphene clad Si MRR, change in Fermi level (and absorption) of Adjustable 0.5 ppm to 2019 [79]
graphene due to NH3 1000 ppm(0.1%) LOD
Ethanol SOI MRR with nanocrystallineZnO film receptor 100 ppm LOD 2010 [80]
Methane SOI MRR with high evanescent field waveguide, 20.8 ppb LOD 2017 [81]
intensity detection
VOCs SOI MRR with poly(2-vinyl pyridine) receptor 5ppm LOD 2018 [82]
CO2 SOI MRR with PbSe Quantum Dots deposited in core 10 ppm LOD 2021 [83]
TNT Sol-gel imprinted polymer MRR for enhanced adsorption of TNT 5 ppb LOD 2019 [84]
High sensitivity 1pm/ppb
Lead & Mesoporous silicate coatings on SOI waveguide for trapping Heavy 100 ppb LOD 2015 [85]
Mercury metal ions
Cadmium RMRR with Ligand based receptor 38.9 ng/L LOD 2019 [86]
DMMP SiN MRR with Polymer cladding receptor, acting as chemo-selective 2 ppb LOD 2014 [87]
sorbent to DMMP molecules
Ricin Si MRR with Sd Abreceptor 300 pMolar LOD 2013 [89]
Testosterone Molecular Imprinted Polymer cladding over SOI MRR 48.7pg/mL LOD 2015 [90]
E.Coli Vertically coupled Si MRR with, antibodies and single DNA 105 CFU/ml LOD 2008 [73]
oligonucleotides based surface receptor
Salmonela SiO2-TiO2 MRR, embedded in flaggelin layer as receptor for binding 7 10-4RIU LOD 2016 [91]
bacteria
Bean-Pod SOI MRR, coated with perfluoro plymer functionalised with antibodies 10 ng/ml LOD, 2012 [92]
Mottle Virus
Pathogen Si MRR based detection of glycol-proteins for multiple viruses, 10 ng/mL to 39 ng/ml 2015 [93]
Biomarkers activation using multiple antibodies LOD
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 609

Fig. 5 — (a) Schematic of PNF assisted RMRR for single nanoparticle detection made on SOI connected via tapered waveguide, (b)
Increase in Evanescent Field strength and reduction in Q factor due to introduction of PNF, (c) Output characteristic of the sensor for
Gold nanoparticle detection of various sizes (r). (Images Adapted from100)

proper Q-factor. A four-fold increase in evanescent 3. Nonlinear Applications: Kerr Frequency Comb
field (EF) has been reported along with well-defined Optical micro-resonators possess the unique ability
Lorentzian-shaped resonant dips having a Q-factor of to store and enhance the optical field circulating
1400. The geometry proposed, generates three crucial inside it. Due to this reason, MRRs have the
modifications in the output signal, (1) Shift in capability of exhibiting nonlinear optical phenomena
Resonance spectrum due to change in refractive index at reasonably low input powers which would
in presence of nanoparticle, (2) Mode Splitting due to otherwise require typically high-power optical pump
backscattering of light from nanoparticle that couples sources. The interplay between several linear (like
back into the resonator, lifting degeneracy, (3) Reduced round-trip loss and chromatic dispersion1) and
power due to light scattering and absorption from the nonlinear (like self-phase modulation, cross-phase
nanoparticle, as shown in Fig. 5(c). modulation, modulational instability and four wave
Besides changes in the cladding, any perturbations mixing (FWM)110) effects occur within the MRR
to the microring structure either explicitly introduced, while the optical field circulates within it. This can
or due to change in environment will also lead to lead to the formation of equidistant frequency lines in
change in the resonance characteristics. Resonance the spectral domain which are conventionally named
frequencies in microrings are very sensitive to as Kerr Frequency Combs (KFCs)111,112. Such KFCs
temperature shift48, and have been used widely to manifest as temporally localized ultra short pulses,
make temperature sensors. Recent publications use that are commonly known as Dissipative Kerr
combination of materials or design strategies to Solitons (DKSs)113,114. DKSs are similar to traditional
improve the response with temperature.101 uses solitons formed in optical fibres and waveguides115
photonic crystal based MRR. Since, Si has a larger with an additional continuous wave (CW))
thermos-optic coefficient as compared to other background in their temporal signature116. The input
materials like SiN, silica, it has been effectively used pump signal that is applied at the bus waveguide
in designing temperature sensors.102 has reported a of the MRR finally manifests as the (CW)
sandwiched silicon – silica structure which can be background in the temporal profile of the DKS.
potentially used for temperature sensing.103 showcases The perspective view of the three-dimensional
a SiN waveguide with Liquid crystal cladding to projection of a DKS and a schematic representation of
increase interaction with temperature. a KFC has been depicted in Fig. 6(a & b) while (c)
Similarly, alterations to dimension and shape of indicates the toroidal resonator platform for
MRRs facilitate design of opto-mechanical sensors from generating KFCs. On-chip MRR based KFCs are
resonators.104 proposed a strain sensor based on flexible inherently robust in nature117–119. Due to this reason
polymer substrate, using MRR excited at 1310nm. The KFC generation using MRRs have been attracting
same group 105 developed a MRR based accelerometer researchers for the past decade as an alternative to
and has reported sensitivity over an order higher than frequency comb sources based on mode-locked
commercially available (Micro-Electro-Mechanical femtosecond lasers. MRR based KFCs encompass a
Systems) MEMS devices. Ultrasonic sensors based on wide range of applications which include
MRRs have also been proposed106,107, which are development of optical atomic clocks with unparalled
developed for medical (endoscopy)108 and photo stability120,121, optical frequency synthesizers122,123,
acoustic microscopy applications109. generation of microwave frequency signals with
610 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

Fig. 6 — (a) Schematic representation of single DKS state generated in the on-chip MRR platform in the temporal domain which forms a
Fourier Transform pair with (b) KFC in the spectral domain (c) KFC generated from micro-toroid resonator.

low phase noise124. MRR based KFCs have exhibited second and the most serious issue is the presence of
the potential to serve as a new class of novel light nonlinear losses like multiphoton absorption in the
source for spectroscopic applications125. The first telecommunication band, which arises because the
demonstration of on chip micro-comb sources occurred indirect bandgap energy of Si at such wavelengths is
in 2010 by two independent groups126,127 with the well below the multi-photon absorption (MPA)
added benefits of reduction in cost, footprint, and energy. KFC sources in Si MRR has been
energy consumption. Since the development of successfully demonstrated in the Mid-Infrared (MIR)
coherent super continuum sources128 the generation of frequency band (between 2µm and 6 µm)142,143 where
resonator-based KFCs have already been taking place MPA vanishes. A comprehensive theoretical study of
at a rapid pace, subsequent question on the phase the dynamics of KFCs and DKS states in presence of
coherence of the generated KFC became a central nonlinear losses such as MPA, free-carrier absorption,
issue. The investigation of the coherency of KFCs had and free-carrier dispersion has been reported in144.
been first carried out in 2011129. Thereafter, on-chip Due to the high MPA, several alternative CMOS
MRR based KFCs spanning over a wide spectral range compatible platforms have been used to fabricate
of an octave has been demonstrated in literature130,131. MRRs to successfully generate KFCs in the
The bandwidth of such KFCs is generated through communication wavelength(s) (around 1.55 µm).
Kerr-mediated FWM, and stability is achieved through These include silicon nitride (Si3N4), silicon
nonlinear self-organizing processes. oxinitrides (SiOxNx) and Hydex glass145. Such
Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) initially appeared to be platforms tend to have low linear loss and relatively
an attractive platform to realise on-chip MRRs and large nonlinearities compared to standard optical
hence integrated micro-combs. Silicon (Si) has been fibers but possess the distinctive advantage of low
quite useful to manifest third-order nonlinear optical nonlinear losses at the communication wavelength146.
effects, like self-phase modulation, cross-phase Furthermore, CMOS compatibility, high material
modulation and FWM132. Si possesses substantially stability and ease with which dispersion can be
high Kerr nonlinearity (n2) which along with the high tweaked126 makes such platforms highly suitable for
refractive index contrast in SOI based devices fabricating MRRs. The past few years have seen
facilitates tight confinement of light within such remarkable progress in usage of such platforms in
devices. This inherently leads to a high nonlinear order to study the dynamics of KFCs in MRRs. The
parameter (γ) in SOI devices (=n2/cAeff, where c is first demonstration of KFC in Si3N4 and Hydex took
the speed of light and Aeff is the effective mode area). place in 2010126,127. In MRRs fabricated from such
Several fascinating nonlinear optical phenomena platforms, KFCs possessing a very wide spectral
such as time lensing133, optical regeneration134, slow bandwidth spanning over an octave or more130,131,147,
light based signal processing135, Raman lasing136, on chip KFCs with a 100 GHz spacing between the
parametric gain137–141 have been successfully different frequency components148 have been
demonstrated in SOI platform. Despite the advantages reported. In addition, phase coherent mode-locked
enlisted earlier, there are two crucial issues with SOI KFCs generated from 200 fs solitonic pulses
that cause a major hindrance to successful KFC has been reported in149. Also, KFCs generated from
generation particularly in telecommunication band single and multiple DKS states which are controllable
(C-band) especially around 1.55µm. First, the absence through the detuning between the input pump laser
of centro-symmetry abrogates all second-order and the MRRs resonance mode had first been
nonlinear optical effects in SOI based devices. The comprehensively studied through experiments in150. A
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 611

novel method for generation of coherent mode-locked hydrogen. Plasma enhanced chemical vapor
KFC in an on chip Si3N4 resonator has been proposed deposition (PECVD) and low-pressure chemical
in151. This scheme of filter driven FWM has vapour deposition (LPCVD) techniques126,154 have
successfully produced broadband KFC with frequency successfully generated thick Si3N4 layers with low
components having small line width of 130kHz. This propagation loss which are easily amenable for
scheme has been illustrated in Fig. 7 (a) and (b). The nonlinear applications. Further, the tensile film stress
KFCs and the corresponding temporal signatures for of Si3N4 is intrinsically high which causes a major
different input powers have been depicted in Fig. 7(c) hindrance to adequate optical confinement within the
and (d). Dual KFCs which get manifested because of ring resonator and hence limits its quality (Q) factor.
multi-soliton pulse generation has been reported in152. The stress in Si3N4 films have been overcome by
Second harmonic generation in Si3N4 has been studied introducing mechanical trenches within the ring155
through high-Q MRR based on-chip KFC153. thereby shooting up the intrinsic Q-factor to 7 million.
Truly such breakthrough in nonlinear optical Dispersion engineering in a Si3N4 MRR with 50 µm
studies in MRRs have been possible because of the radius has been reported through conformal coating of
aforementioned material platforms like Si3N4. Still, the Si3N4 waveguide by HfO2156 as shown in Fig. 8(a).
the fabrication of Si3N4 based MRRs have always Tweaking of magnitude and bandwidth of the regime
remained challenging. The major difficulty has been of anomalous dispersion through a change in the
to grow low loss layers of Si3N4 with a thickness more thickness of HfO2 coating has been reported in this
than 250 nm. Such thickness is required for adequate work. Fig. 8(b) shows the change in the dispersion
mode confinement and dispersion engineering and the zero-dispersion wavelength of the waveguide
which is crucial for nonlinear applications. Si3N4 upon tweaking the thickness of the HfO2 coating.
films contain residual hydrogen which is a major Engineering the dispersion of Si3N4 waveguides has
source of loss at communication wavelengths. also been used as an important tool in157,158 to stretch
For this reason, such films need to be annealed the bandwidth of the generated KFC. The change in
at very high temperatures to eliminate the residual dispersion profile by tweaking the dimension of the

Fig. 7 — (a) Schematic of high index integrated doped Silica glass four-port MRR. (b) Experimental schematic of the ”Filter-driven
FWM” scheme. The loop cavity encapsulating the MRR in (a) comprises of a active-gain fibre (EDFA), a band-pass filter for signal
conditioning of the pump wavelength, the delay-line controls the phase of the loop cavity modes with respect to the modes of the MRR,
an isolator, and a polarization controller. The auto-correlator measures the pulse duration, the optical spectrum analyser (OSA) measures
the output spectrum.(c) Loop cavity spectral signature for increasing (top to bottom) pump powers, achieved through 5.5 (blue), 28
(orange), 40 (red) and 68mW (black) average ring input powers. (d) Temporal waveform of the laser measured with the auto-correlator.
(Images adapted from151)
612 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

Fig. 8 — (a) HfO2coated Si3N4 waveguide156, (b) change in the HfO2 thickness brings about a change in the bandwidth of anomalous
dispersion156, (c) (Top) Simulated integrated dispersion (Dint(v)/2)of Si3N4 MRR for different waveguide height, h and width, w158,
(bottom) KFCs whose bandwidth can be tweaked via dispersion engineering. The arrow positions indicate dispersive wave emissions158
(dispersive waves (DWs) triggered by higher order dispersion are emitted at the zero-dispersion wavelength because of the efficient phase
matching condition110).

Si3N4 waveguide which results in varying KFC parametric down conversion process. Multi-color KFC
bandwidth(s) as reported in158 has been depicted in in the spectral windows of 1.55 µm and 3.1 µm have
Fig. 8(c). Si3N4 based integrated MRRs typically have been reported in a GOI waveguide based MRR162.
small footprints with FSRs in the GHz regime. The GaP-OI MRR consists of a trench of dimension
Several innovative MRR geometries have been 250 nm × 410 nm within a 600 nm × 2990 nm
proposed159 to tweak the FSR of the microring and waveguide. The trench facilitates a 3.25µm wide
hence modulate the frequency spacing between the anomalous dispersion profile which facilitates the
individual comb lines. Such geometries have yielded generation of broad multi-chromatic KFCs. AlGa As-
KFCs with two distinctive spectral signatures. One, in OI waveguides have also proved to be very effective in
which the initial sideband of the KFC is separated fabricating MRRs for nonlinear applications163.
from the pump by a single FSR spacing (termed as
”Type I” KFC), and the second, in which the initial 3.1 Theoretical modelling of MRR based KFC
sideband is separated from the pump signal by several In a rudimentary form the dynamics of MRR based
FSRs (termed as ”Type II” KFC). In160 the intracavity KFCs can be theoretically understood by the approach
field dynamics near the avoided mode crossing point of coupled mode theory165. This methodology
has been theoretically studied in a Si3N4 based evaluates the resonant frequencies of the different
concentric MRR. Recently Gallium Phosphide (GaP) - eigen-modes of the resonator and takes in account the
on Insulator (GOI) is being explored for fabricating temporal dependence of the modal amplitudes. The
MRRs for nonlinear applications161. In addition to cavity dispersion and effective mode volume are
possessing a wide transparency range (0.55µm to evaluated by a set of ordinary differential equations to
11µm), GaP has negligible nonlinear loss above trace the temporal dynamics of each participating
1.1µm. Along with an appreciable third order nonlinear longitudinal mode corresponding to each frequency
coefficient χ3 it possesses a reasonably high second component within the KFC. Although the coupled
order nonlinearity χ2, which facilitates spectral spread mode formalism is physically accurate but the process
of the KFC through second harmonic generation and involves tedious analytical calculations and remains
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 613

incapable to provide generalized guidelines to explore input coupler along with the addition of the input CW
the frequency comb dynamics in MRRs both pump field (see Fig. 9(a)). Thereafter, the resultant
temporally and spectrally. As an alternative to the field evolution is studied over a single roundtrip
coupled mode analysis, the usage of a generalized circulation within the MRR when acted upon by
mean field equation has proved to be convenient and chromatic dispersion and Kerr nonlinearity. The
efficient to comprehensively describe the subtle following equations of Ikeda Map holds true,
dynamics of KFCs in the temporal and spectral
E ( m1) (0, )   Ein  1   E ( m) ( L, )ei0 … (20)
domains through semi-analytical approximations. The
commonly used mean field model to theoretically E ( z ,  )     
k

  E  i k  i
2
realize KFCs in MRRs is the “Lugiato-Lefever  E  i E E … (21)
z 2 k  2 k !   
equation” (LLE)166. In order to arrive at the LLE the
famous equations described by Ikeda167,168 proves to E(m) represents the circulating intra-cavity field in
be particularly useful. These set of equations which the mth roundtrip. z is representative of the
are collectively known as the ”Ikeda Map” longitudinal propagation coordinate. τ is
comprehensively describes the light transmission representative of a reference frame which moves at
within nonlinear ring cavities by applying the slowly the group velocity. θ denotes the power coupling
varying envelope approximation (SVEA) of the coefficient of the input coupler, L = 2πR represents
propagating electric field into the well-known the longitudinal distance traversed by the circulating
Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation (NLSE)110. The field field upon each roundtrip which is numerically equal
dynamics inside the MRR gets described by two steps to the circumference of the resonator. ϕ0 indicates the
with this technique. Firstly at the onset of each round- phase accumulated by the circulating field upon each
trip within the ring the intra-cavity field gets exposed roundtrip with respect to the phase of the input pump
to cavity boundary conditions due to the losses of the field. α is the absorption coefficient of the resonator.

Fig. 9 — (a) Basic schematic of MRR which is used to model the Ikeda Map, (b) Kerr tilt curve from the Homogeneous steady state
analysis of a CW pumped conventional MRR (parameters used from164). Stable, Unstable and oscillatory solutions are denoted by black
circles, red asterisk and blue circles respectively. The DKS in the three solution regimes are denoted by yellow, violet and green circles.
(c) The DKS solutions in the stable and unstable regimes of operation corresponding to which, there is a change in cavity temperature
because of the detuning has been depicted with the aid of a cartoon diagram.
614 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

βk represents the Taylor series expansion of the other hand, the latter indicates that the field evolution
propagation constant β(ω) with respect to the angular over the normalized “fast-time” τ is equated to zero.
frequency of the CW driving field (ω0). Clearly β2 Since, the fast time corresponds to the frequency
represents the second order group velocity dispersion components of the produced DKS in the frequency
(GVD). γ is the nonlinear coefficient of the resonator. E ' E '
Eqn. (6) is the general form of the NLSE110. In an domain, the condition  0 and  0 yields
t '  '
MRR the DKS formation takes place upon multiple homogeneous solution(s) of Eqn. (24). When
roundtrip circulation of the intra-cavity field over the these two aforementioned conditions are imposed
resonator’s circumference. In such a scenario Eqn. (5) in the normalized LLE, the following cubic equation
and (6) gets averaged into a single externally driven is arrived111,
and damped NLSE which is the LLE169,
E (t , )     
k
2
X  Y 3  2Y 2  (  2  1)Y … (25)
tR     i 0  iL  k  i   i L E  E   Ein
z  k 2 k !    
2 2
Here, X = |S| and Y = |E′| are representative of the
… (22) normalized pump and intracavity powers respectively.
In this equation tRdenotes the round-trip time and δ0 For a constant CW input power Eqn. (25) illustrates
is the phase detuning of the cavity resonance with the nonlinear Kerr tilt of the cavity resonance. The
respect to the pump resonance mode. The variable t = intracavity power Y (normalized with respect to the
mtR represents the slow time or the time scale requisite input power X) has been plotted for a range of ∆
for the intracavity field to converge to a stable DKS values (shown in Fig. 9(b)). Clearly three sets of
over m roundtrips. The LLE can be solved intracavity field solutions can be evaluated from
numerically, and the different classes of solutions Eqn. (25) which includes: (i) Unconditionally
provide a deep insight into the temporal and spectral homogeneous “stable” steady state solutions (shown
behaviour of the KFC and is also capable of analyzing by black circles); (ii) Unconditionally homogeneous
the stability of the comb170,171. The LLE can be ”unstable” steady state solutions (shown by red
transformed to the dimensionless form in the asterisk); (iii) Conditionally homogenous stable
following manner116,164. solutions (shown by blue markers). Such solutions are
associated with the phenomenon of Modulation
t ' 2 L  Instability (MI) where a weak periodic perturbation
t'   ;   ; E'  E ;  0 ;
tR 2 L   develops on top of the steady state background both in
… (23) the anomalous and normal dispersion regime111 for
k
L k  2   L micro-ring-resonators. These solutions are called
Dk    ; S  Ein
 k !   2 L  3 “oscillatory” solutions. Experimentally the KFC and
hence the DKS states are obtained by finely scanning
After normalization, the LLE takes the following the input pump frequency near the MRR resonance
form, frequency so as to change the normalized detuning
(∆). This results in different DKS solutions. Three
E ' 
      '
k

 
t ' 
 1  i E ' 2
   i 
k 2
Dk  i '  
   
E  S … (24) distinctive DKS solutions have been denoted by the
yellow, violet, and green circles respectively. The
For a particular resonator dimension, given that the physics behind the different analytical solutions of
dispersion and nonlinear parameter remains constant, Eqn. (25) can be understood in the following manner.
the solution of Eqn. (24) is solely controlled by the Initially the input CW pump power is low, and the
normalized pump power S and the normalized cavity solutions are inherently stable. Upon increasing the
detuning ∆. The soliton of Eqn. (24) is the DKS state detuning, the cavity resonance enters the regime
where it is red detuned with respect to the pump
given by 2  sech  . Eqn. (24) is revisited, with (corresponding to the yellow circle). Further increase
E ' E ' in detuning leads to a purely unstable solution
the conditions,  0 and  0 . Clearly, the
t '  ' (indicated by the violet circle). An increase in
former results in stationary or steady state solution(s) detuning beyond this regime causes the cavity
of Eqn. (24), because the field evolution′ over the resonance to be blue-detuned with respect to the
normalized “slow-time” t is equated to zero. On the pump and stable DKS states are obtained. It should be
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 615

pointed out in this context that upon intracavity power effects cause a major hindrance to access the stable
build up, red-detuning resonance leads to increase in soliton state171,177. The refractive index of the
the local temperature gradient of the generated DKS resonator gets modified on account of the thermal
state which causes the KFC to be unstable. The effects, which influences the circulating intracavity
solution demarcated by the violet circle corresponds power within the MRR178. The thermal-time constant
to the single DKS state. The theoretical demonstration of on chip MRRs is quite fast due to which sustaining
of polarization dynamics of different soliton states the stable single DKS state and hence KFC becomes
have been comprehensively studied in the temporal really cumbersome. To ensure a fine control of the
domain in172. In this work, it has been observed that, detuning between the pump and resonance mode in
in a birefringent optical fiber cavity, when the modes order to obtain a sustained and stable KFC from the
of one principal axis is excited, significant power gets MRR, several resonance tuning approaches have been
coupled to the orthogonally polarized mode by the proposed in literature. In173 it has been demonstrated
mechanism of cross phase modulation. Under such a that operation in the cryogenic temperature regime
situation, simple tweaking of the detuning parameter facilitates direct access of the sustained stable DKS
results in coexistence of three CS states: (i) CSs with state through standard adiabatic frequency tuning of
MI, (ii) two identical CS, (iii) non-identical CS with the pump laser. The experimental scheme is shown in
different polarization properties. Here the numerical Fig. 11(a).
and theoretical studies have been conducted by This is predominantly because of the substantial
solving the LLE and, the normalized fast-time, slow- reduction in the thermo-optic coefficient at cryogenic
time and detuning have been denoted by the temperatures. Usage of integrated heaters have been
symbols t, τ and σ, respectively. A theoretical study of proposed in174,179 for fast thermal tuning of the
DKS, using the LLE in the presence of dual pumping resonance wavelength at a time scale which is
has been done by117. The generated DKS is formed on shorter than the thermal relaxation time of the
an oscillatory background, which is the characteristic resonator. The scheme proposed in174 has been
of dual pumping. The generated DKS is immune to illustrated in Fig. 11(b). Fine control over the electric
input jitters and third order dispersion induced current flowing through the heaters integrated within
temporal drift. Few results of172,117 have been detailed a Si3N4 MRR brings about proper sustenance of the
in Fig. 10. single DKS state. The fast response time of the
heaters play a important role for generation of stable
3.2 Stable and coherent KFC generation in MRR KFC state. A very recent work180 has reported the
Single DKS states generated from MRRs possess fabrication of integrated heaters buried deeply into the
the ability to generate coherent and stable KFCs149. SiO2 under-cladding of a Si3N4 MRR for efficient
The single DKS states tend to position in the red- stabilization of KFCs. In175 a novel stabilization
detuned side of the resonance where thermo-optical mechanism has been proposed (Fig. 11(c)) where the

Fig. 10 — (a) Co-existence of CS in orthogonal polarization modes with different detuning mismatch σ1= 2.75, σ2= 4.2 for identical CS.
(b) Power distribution for identical and non-identical coexisting CS for two orthogonal polarization modes at different detuning values.172
(c) Dual pumped DKS, resilient towards third order dispersion induced temporal drift. (d) Evolution of field over multiple roundtrips,
(c) and (d) are indicative of the oscillatory background.117.
616 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

Fig. 11 — Different KFC stabilization schemes: (a) KFC generation at cryogenic temperatures173, (b) Usage of integrated heaters for
stabilization174, (c) Placing the MRRin an external active fiber loop for stabilization175, (d) usage of an auxiliary laser forstabilization176.
Abbreviations used: Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), Polarization controller (PC), Optical Spectrum Analyzer (OSA), Photo-
detector (PD), Phase Modulator(PM), Wavelength Division Multiplexer (WDM), Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG), Osilloscope(OSC),
Electrical Spectrum Analyzer (ESA).

Fig. 12 (a)-(d) Decrease in the region of unstable solution upon decrease in temperature183. Here ∆T = Tr − Tl is the temperature gradient
between the room (Tr) and chosen low temperature (Tl). (e) Increase in the bandwidth of the generated KFC at low temperatures. (f)
Decrease in normalized spectral density of optical fluctuation 𝑆𝑓/𝑓0 at lower temperatures (∆T = −50K, −193K) compared to room
temperature (∆T = 0K). The encircled frequency denotes the FSR of the cavity. (Images adapted from 183).
MRR has been placed in an external fiber loop cavity states. In176 an auxiliary laser has been used along with
which possess optical gain. the pump diode laser to passively stabilize the
The resonance of the MRR tends to synchronize intra-cavity power of a fused Silica micro-rod resonator
with the fiber loop resonance and in turn is amplified. (Fig. 11(d)). Recently164 it has been demonstrated
The MRR gets pumped by this amplified resonance through numerical simulations that the unstable
which effectively masks the single DKS state within solution of the LLE decreases at temperatures slightly
the stable blue-detuned regime of operation. Several lower than the room temperature (Fig. 12 (a)-(d)).
other techniques like usage of single sideband Along with sustained single DKS state the bandwidth
modulators181, phase modulation of the pump182 have of the generated KFC also increases at low
also been used to ensure generation of stable DKS temperatures (Fig. 12(e)). The thermo-refractive noise
 KAR et al.: MICRORING RESONATORS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 617

Fig. 13 — Application space of MRR, showcasing few and important domains.

of the KFC is quite low at lower temperatures than at 3.5 billion USD in the Silicon photonics market in the
the room temperature (Fig. 12(f)). next five years, several leading photonics companies
of the world that include AegiQ (UK), Cambridge
4 Conclusion and Outlook Quantum Computing (UK), Hamamatsu photonics
Rapid and reliable exchange of information (Japan) etc. have started focussing on organized
remained the principal driving force of the society investment towards fabrication of Si-based MRRs for
since the latter half of the 20th century. Innumerable variety of applications in the communication sector.
services and applications in the recent times ranging Due to its importance in realizing on-chip
from traffic safety and guidance, Internet of Things applications and services, it is forecasted that MRRs
(IOT), medical diagnosis, treatment and so on demand can potentially evolve as a multi-billion-dollar
communication systems with high speed and large investment sector by various foundries. Keeping in
transmission capacity. The invention of optical fibres mind the importance of such a multifaceted optical
and its corresponding commercial usage from the element, in this review article, we attempted to
1970’s and 90’s have proved to be particularly provide a compact, yet comprehensive overview of
effective to meet the ever-increasing demands of high MRRs. The diverse usage of MRRs for linear and
data rate, reliability, and energy efficiency of nonlinear applications have been summarized in
communication systems, where the optical fibers have Fig. 13. In the domain of linear applications, MRRs
made its presence within data centers as well. have been exploited for designing fundamental and
However, the role of photonic technologies higher order filters, in signal and data processing, for
specifically at the chip-scale now gaining interest to realizing optical modulators and for on-chip sensing.
meet several requirements whether it is for routing the Here, the usage of MRRs for filters and sensing
data within a chip or sensing. Other than the applications have been discussed in detail. The
celebrated optical waveguides as an optical idiosyncratic advantage of MRRs lie in the generation
interconnect, passive optical resonators gradually of on-chip coherent broadband KFCs which holds
became an extremely important component for promise for replacing the existing power-hungry
various applications such optical filters, mux and LASER based sources using WDM/DWDM, thereby
demux, modulator, sensors, and more recently in cutting down cost effectively. Because of the unique
quantum light generation. With Silicon photonics ability of MRRs to confine the propagating electric
being one of the most attractive technologies of the field, nonlinear processes manifest effectively within
last decade on chip MRRs in the SOI platform have them, which leads to the generation of robust single
been vastly explored by researchers for a wide DKS state and hence KFCs. In this article the
spectrum of applications. With an expected growth of different material platforms utilized for generation of
618 INDIAN J PURE APPL PHYS, VOL. 61, JULY 2023

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