Dramatic shape sensitivity of directional emission patterns from similarly deformed cylindrical polymer lasers

Harald G.L. Schwefel, Nathan B. Rex, Hakan E. Tureci, Richard K. Chang, A. Douglas Stone, Tahar Ben-Messaoud, Joseph Zyss

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

188 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent experiments on similarly shaped polymer microcavity lasers show a dramatic difference in the far-field emission patterns. We show, for different deformations of the ellipse, quadrupole and hexadecapole, that the large differences in the far-field emission patterns are explained by the differing ray dynamics corresponding to each shape. Analyzing the differences in the appropriate phase space for ray motion, it is shown that the differing geometries of the unstable manifolds of periodic orbits are the decisive factors in determining the far-field pattern. Surprisingly, we find that strongly chaotic ray dynamics is compatible with highly directional emission in the far field.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)923-934
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics
Volume21
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2004
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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