Fermi resonance in optical microcavities

Abstract

Fermi resonance is a phenomenon of quantum mechanical superposition, which most often occurs between normal and overtone modes in molecular systems that are nearly coincident in energy. We find that scarred resonances in deformed dielectric microcavities are the very phenomenon of Fermi resonance, that is, a pair of quasinormal modes interact with each other due to coupling and a pair of resonances are generated through an avoided resonance crossing. Then the quantum number difference of a pair of quasinormal modes, which is a consequence of quantum mechanical superposition, equals periodic orbits, whereby the resonances are localized on the periodic orbits. We derive the relation between the quantum number difference and the periodic orbits and confirm it in an elliptic, a rectangular, and a stadium-shaped dielectric microcavity. © 2015 American Physical Society.