Temperature compensation of optical microresonators using a surface layer with negative thermo-optic coefficient

We theoretically investigate the feasibility of using a surface layer with a negative thermo-optic coefficient to compensate the thermal drift of a resonant frequency in an optical microresonator. Taking a fused-silica microsphere as an example, our analysis has shown that the thermal drift of a whisper-gallery mode can be fully compensated by such a surface layer. We analyze and compare the compensation performances by using different materials as the surface layer. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.