STABILITY AND SWITCHING IN WHISPERING-GALLERY-MODE MICRODISK LASERS

We examine whispering-gallery-mode microdisk lasers, which have some potential for use in optical computing, in an attempt to determine their stability and switching properties. We solve the laser equations for a coupled-laser system and investigate the stability and switching properties of these solutions. We find that the lasers are stable and switch reliably in the absence of noise. If reasonable estimates of noise are included, spontaneous switching rates of the order of once a year can be arranged using physically reasonable parameter values.