Tunable coupling-induced resonance splitting in self-coupled Silicon ring cavity with robust spectral characteristics

Abstract: We propose and demonstrate a self-coupled microring resonator for resonance splitting by mutual mode coupling of cavity mode and counter-propagating mode in Silicon-on-Insulator platform The resonator is constructed with a self-coupling region that can excite counter-propagating mode. We experimentally study the effect of self-coupling on the resonance splitting, resonance extinction, and quality-factor evolution and stability. Based on the coupling, we achieve 72% of FSR splitting for a cavity with FSR 2.1 nm with < 5% variation in the cavity quality factor. The self-coupled resonance splitting shows highly robust spectral characteristic that can be exploited for sensing and optical signal processing.