Observation of a nonlinear microfiber resonator

Abstract

Measurements of the intensity transfer function of a silica microfiber resonator are shown to follow a wide variety of hysteresis cycles, depending on the cavity detuning and the scanning frequency of the range of input powers. We attribute these observations to a nonlinear phase shift of thermal origin and provide a simple model that reproduces well our measurements. The response time is found to be around 0.6 ms.