Asymmetric resonant cavities and their applications in optics and photonics: a review

Abstract

Asymmetric resonant cavities (ARCs) with smoothly deformed boundaries are currently under intensive study because they possess distinct properties that conventional symmetric cavities cannot provide. On one hand, it has been demonstrated that ARCs allow for highly directional emission instead of the in-plane isotropic light output in symmetric whispering-gallery cavities, such as microdisks, microspheres, and microtoroids. On the other hand, ARCs behave like open billiard system and thus offer an excellent platform to test classical and quantum chaos. This article reviews the recent progresses and prospects for the experimental realization of ARCs, with applications toward highly directional microlasing, strong-coupling light-matter interaction, and highly sensitive biosensing.