One-dimensional finite-elements method for the analysis of whispering gallery microresonators

By taking advantage of axial symmetry of the planar whispering gallery microresonators, the three-dimensional (3D) problem of the resonator is reduced to a two-dimensional (2D) one; thus, only the cross section of the resonator needs to be analyzed. Then, the proposed formulation, which works based on a combination of the finite-elements method (FEM) and Fourier expansion of the fields, can be applied to the 2D problem. First, the axial field variation is expressed in terms of a Fourier series. Then, a FEM method is applied to the radial field variation. This formulation yields an eigenvalue problem with sparse matrices and can be solved using a well-known numerical technique. This method takes into account both the radiation loss and the dielectric loss; hence, it works efficiently either for high number or low number modes. Efficiency of the method was investigated by comparison of the results with those of commercial software. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America