Visible Photoluminescence from Cubic (3C) Silicon Carbide Microdisks Coupled to High Quality Whispering Gallery Modes

We present the design, fabrication and characterization of cubic (3C) silicon carbide microdisk resonators with high quality factor modes at visible and near infrared wavelengths (600 - 950 nm). Whispering gallery modes with quality factors as high as 2,300 and corresponding mode volumes V 2 (λ/n)^3 are measured using laser scanning confocal microscopy at room temperature. We obtain excellent correspondence between transverse-magnetic (TM) and transverse-electric (TE) polarized resonances simulated using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method and those observed in experiment. These structures based on ensembles of optically active impurities in 3C-SiC resonators could play an important role in diverse applications of nonlinear and quantum photonics, including low power optical switching and quantum memories.