LIMITATIONS ON THE PHOTON STORAGE LIFETIME IN ELECTROMAGNETIC RESONANCES OF HIGHLY TRANSPARENT MICRODROPLETS

Thermal fluctuations lead to nonspherical distortions of liquid microdroplets with typical amplitude 0.1 nm. The 2l+1 modes of a multiplet are then split in frequency by a fractional amount of order /a10-5, where a is the droplet radius. The width of the multiplet in the frequency domain implies a proportionate reduction in the photon storage lifetime and can limit the effective Q value defined by the photon lifetime to Q0(a/)(105/), where (0<<1) is process dependent and expresses the fraction of the modes of the multiplet effectively coupled in the process. The theory behind this scenario is presented. © 1990 The American Physical Society.