Optomagnonic Whispering Gallery Microresonators

Magnons in ferrimagnetic insulators such as yttrium iron garnet (YIG) have recently emerged as promising candidates for coherent information processing in microwave circuits. Here we demonstrate optical whispering gallery modes of a YIG sphere interrogated by a silicon nitride photonic waveguide, with quality factors approaching $10^6$ in the telecom c-band after surface treatments. Moreover, in contrast to conventional Faraday setup, this implementation allows input photon polarized colinearly to the magnetization to be scattered to a sideband mode of orthogonal polarization. This Brillouin scattering process is enhanced through triply resonant magnon, pump and signal photon modes - all of whispering gallery nature - within an "optomagnonic cavity". Our results show the potential use of magnons for mediating microwave-to-optical carrier conversion.