High-Q side-coupled semi-2D-photonic crystal cavity.

High-Q semi-2D-photonic crystal cavities with a tapered edge and side-coupled bus waveguide are demonstrated. With a quadratic design, the unloaded cavity presents a theoretical ultrahigh quality factor up to 6.7 × 10(7) for the condition that there are mere 34 holes in the propagated direction, which is pretty close to the 2D and 1D counterpart. Combined with a side-coupled bus waveguide, an all-pass-type cavity with a loaded quality factor (Q) of over 2.4 × 10(4) and an extinction ratio over 10 dB are experimentally demonstrated. An experimental loaded Q up to 1.1 × 10(5) are also achieved by tuning the coupling between the cavity and the bus waveguide, which is much larger than any reported surface-mode cavity. This cavity is quite suitable for sensors, filters and especially optomechanical devices thanks to the mechanical stability of the cavity and flexibility of the bus waveguide.