Fiber taper coupling to chalcogenide microsphere modes

We report the fabrication and optical characterization of microsphere in chalcogenide (As2Se3). We show that high Q modes of a 9.2μm diameter chalcogenide glass can be efficiently excited via evanescent coupling using a silica tapered fiber. Loaded Q factors of more than 20 000 have been measured. Fine analysis of the coupling spectrum around 1619nm led to an estimation of the microsphere eccentricity of less than 1%. Owing to the unique combination properties of chalcogenide glass and the microspheres geometry, we expect this architecture to offer an ideal environment for versatile applications on both the telecommunication and midinfrared wavelength windows.