Optical Processes in Microcavities

Abstract

Studies of optical microresonators with dimensions between 0.1 and 10 microns are now under way in a wide variety of condensed matter systems. Ideally, one can isolate a single mode of the optical field in a cube a half-wavelength on a side with perfectly reflecting walls. Liquid droplets, polymer spheres and semiconductor Fabry-Perot microcavities with dielectric mirrors are examples of microresonators with which one can approach this ideal limit and nearly isolate a few modes of the electromagnetic field from the continuum of surrounding free-space modes.