This work investigates the use of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) as a high-refractive-index material for quarter-wave distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) in photonic applications. In comparison to Si3N4, a-Si:H enables enhanced optical confinement, broader omnidirectional reflectance, and improved figures of merit, including higher Purcell and quality factors, while minimizing mirror complexity. To evaluate the practical impact of these advantages, a theoretical comparison is conducted between Fabry–Pérot cavities based on a-Si:H/SiO2 and Si3N4/SiO2 DBRs, examining resonance shifts as functions of cavity refractive index (1.0–3.0) and temperature (0–250 °C). The numerical results indicate that Si3N4/SiO2 planar Bragg caviti

We describe the use of on-chip buckled-dome Fabry–Perot microcavities as pressure sensing elements. These cavities, fabricated by a controlled thin-film buckling process, are inherently sealed and support stable optical modes (finesse  > 10 3 ), which are well-suited to coupling by single-mode fibers. Changes in external pressure deflect

We report on the experimental and theoretical characterization of elliptically shaped Fabry–Perot microcavities fabricated through a controlled thin-film buckling process. Due to the highly astigmatic nature of the buckled mirrors, the cavity modes are well described as elliptical Hermite–Gaussian beams. In addition to lifting the typical degeneracy of higher-order transverse spatial modes, the cavities exhibit large polarization-mode splitting greater than 25 GHz in the 1550 nm wavelength range. This large, controllable, and highly predictable birefringence makes these cavities of interest for emerging applications in cavity quantum optics that rely on non-degenerate polarization modes.

We conducted a theoretical study on the potential use of amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) as the high-index material in quarter-wave-stack Bragg mirrors for cavity quantum electrodynamics applications. Compared to conventionally employed T a 2

We describe curved-mirror Fabry-Perot cavities with embedded silicon nitride membranes, fabricated using a monolithic surface-micromachining process. The presence of the suspended membranes was confirmed by confocal microscopy, and their properties were verified through optical studies and thermomechanical calibration of mechanical/vibrational noise spectra measured at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The cavities exhibit reflectance-limited finesse (F ∼ 10³) and wavelength-scale mode volumes (V_M ∼ 10·λ³). The short cavity length (L ∼ 2·

We describe a monolithic approach to fabricating large-scale arrays of high-finesse and low-mode-volume Fabry–Perot microcavities with open access to the air core. A stress-driven buckling self-assembly technique was used to form half-symmetric curved-mirror cavities, and a dry etching process was subsequently used to create micropores through the upper mirror. We show that the cavities retain excellent optical properties, with reflectance-limited finesse ∼ 2500

High‐quality factor Q  and elliptical cross‐section microcavity of small size are described. We present a numerical investigation of the performance of the elliptical microcavity. We design elliptical microcavities to control the emission rate of dipolar emitters and investigate how the ellipticity factor influences the Purcell and Q ‐factors. We demonstrate an enhancement of up to 16 × 10 ³ in the Purcell factor for TiO ₂ ‐based mirrors and 8 × 10