Morphology-dependent resonances in a cylindrical dye microlaser: mode assignments, cavity Q values, and critical dye concentrations

We investigate some of the characteristics of a cylindrical whispering-gallery-mode dye microlaser. Angular fine structure observed in the laser emission from a single cylindrical cavity resonance is used as independent verification of a mode-assignment procedure based on accurate measurement of the spectral mode spacing. The mode assignments permit calculation of the cavity Q values associated with observed laser modes. By equating gain and loss in the cavity, we explain the wavelengths of the laser emissions from cylinders of different diameters and investigate the possibility of cavity quantum-electrodynamic enhancement of the stimulated-emission cross section of-excited dye molecules at resonant wavelengths in the cavity. We find that such enhancement is small compared with that found in a spherical microdroplet of similar diameter and attribute this to the lower dimensionality of confinement in the cylindrical cavity.

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