Multimode laser emission from free-standing cylindrical microcavities

We report a well resolved whispering gallery mode (WGM) laser emission from a free-standing microring cavity based on a dye doped hollow polymer optical fiber (DDHPOF), which is transversely pumped by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The microring laser is characterized by a well-defined, low threshold pump power at which the emission spectral intensity dramatically increases and collapses into several dominant microcavity laser modes with reduced mode spacing and high Q-value. Resonant modes are excited inside the gain medium which is strongly confined along the radial direction so that the spacing of lasing modes is controlled by the diameter of the cylindrical microcavity. A variation in the free spectral range of WGM spectra from 0.23 to 0.09 nm coupled with a red-shift is observed with an increase in the diameter of DDHPOFs. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.