Ray picture and ray-wave correspondence in triangular microlasers

Abstract

We apply ray-optical methods to dielectric optical microcavities in the shape of triangles made of low refractive index material. We find ray trajectories that maximize the intensity inside the cavity to determine the far-field emission characteristics and to complement the concept of the unstable manifold applicable to chaotic microlasers. As these maximum intensity trajectories need not to be periodic, we suggest that they provide a more general explanation for emission patterns of microlasers than short periodic orbits. Further, the geometrical optics description is extended by the inclusion of intensity amplification along the optical path to achieve a better description of active, lasing cavities. Far-field emission patterns of equilateral triangle cavities obtained in this way agree well with our full electromagnetic wave simulations and with previously reported experimental results.

10 pages, 5 figures; considerably expanded, especially results of wave simulations added

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Consequences of a wave-correction extended ray dynamics for integrable and chaotic optical microcavities