Observation of lossless radiative modes of a dielectric sphere

A theoretical investigation of plane-wave electromagnetic scattering in active dielectric sphere predicted the existence of anomalous resonances that occur at discrete wavelengths. These resonances may be understood from a leaky wave phase matching boundary conditions, in which the gain in the dielectric exactly makes up for the radiative loss of a mode. This results in a radiative mode that does not decay in time, therefore it is described as a lossless radiative mode. Experiments have been performed to verify the existence of these resonances. Optical pumping was used to provide the gain, and the threshold of each resonant mode was found to be a function of the dye concentration and the radius of the dielectric sphere. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)03816-5].