Self-focused beams to couple light into a whispering-gallery mode resonator

Abstract: We propose an original method to couple light into a whispering-gallery mode resonator. This method benefits from the mode selectivity and robustness of the prism-coupling along with the single-mode propagation of the fiber taper. It consists in a prism shaped crystal with a waveguide inscribed inside it. The waveguide is self-inscribed in-situ by beam self-trapping to allow an optimum coupling to a given resonator.