Directional emission from deformed dielectric cavities
As the deformation of the cavity is increased, the
metastable state shifts in frequency, and its lifetime decreases. At the same time, the
emission becomes more directional.
Frames from this movie have appeared
on the cover of
"Optics in '97", a
special issue of Optics & Photonics News, 12/97
Shown here is the wave function of a cylinder with an oscillating cross
section in the shape of a quadrupole. In the undeformed circle, the angular momentum quantum
number is 68, the wavelength in the cavity is about 14 times smaller than the radius. The index
of refraction of the cavity is 1.54 (i.e. that of glass). Classical phase space structure here
causes the emission at high deformation to violate intuitive expectations: The light does not
come out tangential to the points of highest curvature. The phase space structure is also
reflected in the internal wave function.
More movies:
Learn more in an animated tour through the ray-wave
duality in oval dielectric resonators.
This link will confront you with the German language, so you may want
to prepare yourself by
learning the basics from Mark Twain.
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