Chapter 5

Review on unidirectional light emission from ultralow-loss modes in deformed microdisks

Jan Wiersig, Julia Unterhinninghofen, Qinghai Song, Hui Cao, Martina Hentschel and Susumu Shinohara

Abstract

In microdisk cavities, whispering-gallery optical modes are confined by total internal reflection at the boundary of the disk. The small mode volumes and the ultralow losses of the modes offer a high potential for several applications, such as low-threshold lasing. The uniform in-plane light emission from an ideal disk with circular cross section, however, is a significant drawback. In this chapter we review the recent progress in microdisk design for unidirectional light emission from modes with low losses. We compare and discuss the pros and cons of various approaches. One important aspect is the ray-wave correspondence in such deformed microdisks.

Total Pages: 109-152 (44)

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