Broad tuning of whispering-gallery modes in silicon microdisks.

Silicon microdisks with dynamically-tunable resonance spectra are achieved with nanoscale, in-plane silicon electrical contacts in a single lithographic step. Electrical current is passed through the devices to enable thermal tuning via joule heating. A 14nm wavelength shift is demonstrated with 1.6mW power consumption in devices with >20nm free spectral ranges and quality factors exceeding 20,000. Spectral shifts equal to a full width at half maximum can be achieved with approximately 10microW tuning power for a mode with quality factor of 20,000.