Multimode lasing in wave-chaotic semiconductor microlasers

Abstract

We investigate experimentally and theoretically the lasing behavior of dielectric microcavity lasers with chaotic ray dynamics. Experiments show multimode lasing for both D-shaped and stadium-shaped wave-chaotic cavities. Theoretical calculations also find multimode lasing for different shapes, sizes, and refractive indices. While there are quantitative differences between the theoretical lasing spectra of the stadium and D-cavity, due to the presence of scarred modes with anomalously high-quality factors, these differences decrease as the system size increases, and are also substantially reduced when the effects of surface roughness are taken into account. Lasing spectra calculations are based on steady-state ab initio laser theory, and indicate that gain competition is not sufficient to result in single-mode lasing in these systems.