Prism coupling and visualization of surface nanoscale axial photonic structures

Anatoliy Savchenkov; Zijie Wang; Manuel Crespo-Ballesteros; Michael Sumetsky; Andrey Matsko

doi:10.1038/s44172-026-00672-x

Prism coupling and visualization of surface nanoscale axial photonic structures

Anatoliy Savchenkov
, Zijie Wang
, Manuel Crespo-Ballesteros
, Michael Sumetsky
, Andrey Matsko

California Institute of Technology
Aston University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Surface nanoscale axial photonics (SNAP) has demonstrated the record subangstrom precise fabrication of miniature optical devices enabling applications in classical and quantum signal processing unfeasible to date. However, SNAP devices formed by subnanometre protrusions of the optical fiber surface lack robustness and simple identification methods. This complicates their controlled alignment and raises concerns about their practical applicability. Here we introduce techniques that enable both direct visualization of nanoscale SNAP features and efficient coupling to fused-silica SNAP microresonators using evanescent-field prism couplers. These advances provide precise control of light-resonator interactions and establish a scalable and robust route towards on-chip integration of SNAP devices, opening opportunities for their critical applications in computing, telecommunications, ultraprecise sensing, and fundamental optical science.

Original language	English
Journal	Communications Engineering
Early online date	1 Jun 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-026-00672-x
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 1 Jun 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2026. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and Zijie Wang, Manuel Crespo-Ballesteros, Michael Sumetsky. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Data Access Statement

Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

Funding

Z.W, M.C.-B., and M.S. acknowledge support from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grants EP/W002868/1 and EP/X03772X/1, Leverhulme Trust grant RPG-2022-014, and China Scholarship Council, grant 202306890079.

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s44172-026-00672-x_reference
Copyright © 2026. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and Zijie Wang, Manuel Crespo-Ballesteros, Michael Sumetsky. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Accepted author manuscript, 6.24 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

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abstract = "Surface nanoscale axial photonics (SNAP) has demonstrated the record subangstrom precise fabrication of miniature optical devices enabling applications in classical and quantum signal processing unfeasible to date. However, SNAP devices formed by subnanometre protrusions of the optical fiber surface lack robustness and simple identification methods. This complicates their controlled alignment and raises concerns about their practical applicability. Here we introduce techniques that enable both direct visualization of nanoscale SNAP features and efficient coupling to fused-silica SNAP microresonators using evanescent-field prism couplers. These advances provide precise control of light-resonator interactions and establish a scalable and robust route towards on-chip integration of SNAP devices, opening opportunities for their critical applications in computing, telecommunications, ultraprecise sensing, and fundamental optical science.",

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N1 - Copyright © 2026. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and Zijie Wang, Manuel Crespo-Ballesteros, Michael Sumetsky. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Prism coupling and visualization of surface nanoscale axial photonic structures

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Access Statement

Funding

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