Writing 2 Project 1

Jiaan (Jeffrey) Han

Instructor: Jesse Mikhail Wesso

June 8, 2023

422 Million intrinsic quality factor planar integrated all-waveguide resonator with

sub-MHz linewidth

Q: What are the newest developments in optical resonator research?

Answer by Jeffrey Han

Optical resonator is a broad concept with many noteworthy avenues of research. A

successful low-loss resonator system can drastically reduce signal transmission loss in

electronic devices, thus augmenting efficiency and precision. Such resonators can also

facilitate precise time measurements. Currently, a key objective for scientists is to

miniaturize these resonators, thus allowing for integration into small-scale electronic

devices.

Recently, researchers from UCSB have revealed a groundbreaking development in

minimizing the transmission loss of a miniature-scale optical resonator. Here are some

conclusions of their study:

1. Fabrication Methods They have unveiled a novel approach to fabricate (produce)

optical resonators. Traditional fabrication of an optical resonator involves a

patterning, etching, and cladding process. In an innovative step, the team designed a

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redeposition and annealing step between the etching and cladding process (shown in

the picture), which can be likened to gold-plating jewelry.

Within the depicted image, the dark blue area represents the waveguide (where the

light travels), laden with Si3N4. The redeposition and annealing process has been

demonstrated to significantly decrease the transmission loss within such a resonator.

The overall structure of the resonator is a bus-coupled ring resonator. Figure (a)

portrays the structure of a bus-coupled ring resonator, whereas figure (f) illusrtates

light resonance. As the light traverses the regions where the ring is adjacent to the bus

(line), a fraction of the light energy is transferred to the ring waveguide, causing the

light to revolve within the waveguide. Figure (c) (d) (e) present some potential defects

in the resonator that could induce experimental inaccuracies.

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2. Experiment and Data Analysis The researchers collected data pertaining to

optical transmission loss from the fabricated resonators. They primarily evaluated the

Quality Factor (Q) of the resonators which signifies the extent of energy loss in the

resonator. By comparing the Q of the resonators fabricated using both traditional and

novel methods, they found that the new resonator possesses much higher Q (meaning

reduced loss) than the traditionally constructed one. The Q factor of the resonator

fabricated using this new method reached an impressive 422 million.

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In conclusion, researchers at UCSB have demonstrated a pioneering technique for

producing a compact, integrated optical resonator that considerably increase its

efficiency.

In my perspective, the integrated optical resonator has immense potential to

revolutionize communication and signal transmission due to its high efficiency and

accuracy. It is plausible that later in the field of optical resonators, scientists will

emphasize on their integration into precise equipment. Following the evolution of

integrated optical resonators, I believe it will propel advancements in cutting-edge

technology like optical gyroscopes, optical atomic clocks, and even quantum

computation. Properly applied, these technological strides have the potential to

illuminate the path to a more technologically advanced future for humanity.

You can access the original paper here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21205-4

Reflective Essay

The intended audience of this translation is individuals asking about the newest

advances of optical resonator research on Quora or other similar online platforms. I

suppose the persons who ask the question or read my answers possess basic

understanding of optical resonators but may not be well-versed in the field's current

research focus. The readers may mainly be students delving into this field, investors

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interested in the latest advancements of this field, or just science lovers with a passion

for it. The readers of the original academic article are mainly researchers entrenched

in this field, equipped with abundant prior knowledge to help them read this article

and extract information they need. In contrast, the readers of my new article have less

prior knowledge and are not able to extract information themselves.

I choose this new genre to communicate with the online readers in a manner that

facilitates their absorption of information about new innovations in this field. Such a

genre is much less professional than the original paper, and it extracts the key points

from the paper to express core ideas concisely. As Dirk said, “warm, personal style

was prevalent through every essay” (Dirk 2010, 250), so I aim to adopt this shorter,

more personal style to help more readers understand. I hope the audience can read this

succinct description to easier understand the most important method displayed in the

essay, to assist them grab the latest path of innovation. To achieve this, I first deleted

most of the introduction part, since it is primarily summarizing earlier similar findings

and provides lots of data which may seem confusing to the readers without a

professional background. I only retained the segment that introduces the potential

applications of the optical resonator, offering the readers an insight into the societal

benefits of such innovations. Also, I discarded most of the part of discussing the

experiment data and the plots created for data analysis, since providing so much data

only confuses readers if they don’t know the experiment setup. Additionally,

introducing all the experimental equipment and conditions would elevate the

professional tone of my response, making it incomprehensible for the large public.

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Moreover, I deleted the part of theoretical analysis and error discussion. For example,

the fifth page of the original paper discussed the details of light transmission loss in

the ring resonator and a small error appearing in the collected data. This intricate

discussion only aims to provide peer reviewers richer information about the

experiment data and the principles behind them, but it did not help people with less

professional knowledge grasp the core thought of this research, maybe even

perplexing them. Due to these disadvantages, it is inappropriate to incorporate much

information about the theories and experiment data into my translation. However, I

have provided the link to the original article at the end of my answer to allow those

with deeper interest to directly dive into the original research, also to show respect to

the authors.

The core components of my translation revolve around the methods, which I believe

express the authors' most significant contributions. I described the innovations they

made in concise words to show directly their contributions to the advancement of this

field. Then, I provided the picture from the supplemental materials of this essay

submitted by the original authors, to illustrate the key methods in a most direct way. I

spent considerable time explaining their fabrication method as it represents the "new

development" in this article: the focus is not solely on achieving a lower energy loss

in the resonator, but on inventing a new path for optimizing energy transmission

efficiency. Then, I also described the data they analyzed to ensure their experimental

results comply with their expectation. This aims to tell the readers how these

researchers perform their experiment and check their assumptions, to let them learn

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the process of scientific inquiry. To enhance readers’ comprehension, I made my word

choices easier and more colloquial. Sometimes I must give up more precise words

because they are too professional and make my translation perplexing.

One significant challenge I encountered was condensing this article to make people

easy to read it casually. As Reyman notes, “It is important to keep in mind the

intended audience of the work” (Reyman 2022, 87), being easy to read is significant

for such large, intended audience. To accomplish this, I first identified the parts of the

article to exclude, as merely condensing each part would still result in an overly

lengthy piece. To enhance clarity, I chose to delete those confusing sections and

instead use more descriptive language to illustrate the most critical methodologies.

Another challenge lay in crafting a response that could be readily understood by the

general public. To conquer this challenge, I had to sacrifice precision and specificity

in some parts of the explanation, as excessively technical language might prove too

confusing. For those critical concepts, I retained the precise professional terminology,

but use parentheses to add descriptions to help readers understand. Furthermore, I

avoided describing details of the professional equipment or theoretical concepts,

opting instead to use metaphors to convey the concepts. Additionally, I incorporated

images from the original essay to help elucidate these concepts.

In general, I hope to provide a response tailored to the fast-paced, information-driven

environment of the modern internet. With many people lacking the time to delve into

research papers or lengthy blog posts, online knowledge forums like Quora offer a

platform for quick learning and casual browsing of useful information. I hope that

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such an online response can effectively communicate the latest developments in

optical resonator research to those seeking such knowledge. My main objective is to

provide a short, concise and most importantly, accessible answer to inform the general

public with limited background knowledge about the latest advancements and aid

them in making informed decisions about their studies or work.

Bibliography

Dirk, Kerry, and Pavel Zemliansky. “Navigating Genres.” Essay. In Writing Spaces:

Readings on Writing, Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe, 249–62. Parlor Press,

2010. 

Reyman, Eva. “A Feminist on a Three Course Meal.” Essay. In Starting Lines: An

Anthology of Student Writing, 21st Edition, 86–88. Hayden_McNeil, 2022.