Highly directional stadium-shaped polymer microlasers

The far-field emission of two-dimensional stadium-shaped microlasers is investigated. Stadium-shaped microcavities based on a laser dye embedded in a polymer matrix have been elaborated. Such stadium-shaped microresonators, made by lithography and reactive ion etching have displayed quality factors greater than 6000 and a high output power. The highly directional far-field pattern of the emitted beam (full width at half maximum similar to 15 degrees) reflects the symmetries of the stadium shape. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.