Abstract

“Anomalous” quantum processes in the context of spontaneous emission (1,2) and stimulated emission (3, 4) have been first investigated by our laboratory by use of the optical microcavity. We report here the detailed quantum theory and the experimental results relative to the behaviour of the “threshold-less microlaser”. The idea of such a system is quite simple: when spontaneous emission is confined in a cavity whose dimension is on the order of the emission wavelength (order of the cavity m~1), fluorescence losses to free space modes are eliminated. In this peculiar situation spontaneous emission is overcome and merges into stimulated emission at very low levels of excitation energy.

© 1992 IQEC