Waves and Rays in Plano-Concave Laser Cavities: Ii. A Semiclassical Approach

This second paper on the Fabry-Perot cavity presents a semi-classical approach, which means that we consider the transition from wave optics to geometrical optics. The basic concepts are the periodic orbits and their stability. For the plano-concave Fabry-Perot cavity in the paraxial approximation, the derivation of the trace formula demonstrates that the spectrum is based only on the axial periodic orbit and its repetitions. Experiments with micro-lasers illustrate the relation to periodic orbits. The methods presented in this paper are not limited to laser cavities and can be applied to a large range of wave systems.