Observation of emission from chaotic lasing modes in deformed microspheres: displacement by the stable-orbit modes

By combining detailed imaging measurements at different tilt angles with si mulations of ray emission from prolate-deformed lasing microdroplets, we co nclude that the dominant contribution to the laser emission of such three-d imensional dielectric microcavities must come from modes associated with th e chaotic region of the ray phase space. As a particularly striking signatu re, maximum emission from such chaotic lasing modes is not from tangent ray s emerging from the highest curvature part of the rim. The laser emission i s observed and calculated to be nontangent and displaced from the highest c urvature regions owing to the presence of stable orbits. In this paper we p resent the first experimental evidence for this phenomenon of dynamical ecl ipsing. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(00)00911-5].