Transient behavior of internal intensity and scattering processes in microcavities under femtosecond excitation

Summary form only given. Microcavities have since been characterized in the frequency domain. In particular, high resolution spectroscopy of scattered light has been extensively used to identify high-Q modes (such as whispering gallery modes) and estimate their quality factors. Similarly, Lorenz-Mie theory is usually applied to microcavities in the stationary regime. Modes can then fulfill the requirements such as orbit closing and phase matching conditions (also with the external fields). Very few studies have been dedicated to transient behaviors, where the excitation is much shorter than the modes roundtrip times. This latter case can be represented by ballistic motions of wavepackets within resonators, that are much larger. We present the experimental and theoretical studies (based on a time-dependent Lorenz-Mie formalism) of the ballistic motion of optical femtosecond wavepackets traveling inside and scattering out of the dielectric microcavities.