ABSTRACT
This chapter is mainly devoted to the basic concepts that underlie the dynamic features of light conned in quasi two-dimensional micro-cavities. Moreover, in accordance with the general orientation of this book, there is special emphasis on practical applications, or the onset of such in this relatively new and emerging eld at the border of science and technology. The implementation of physical phenomena in organic materials is justied by the appealing assets of this broad class of materials, both in terms of their functional versatility, that lends them to a molecular engineering approach and the availability and maturity of a relatively easy enabling technology. Nevertheless, the foundations as well as major applications of organic materials outreach any specic material technology, similar possibilities in glass and semiconductor materials bear specic pros and cons. In the rst section, we will review the main motivation which have lead us to select organic materials and the candidate technology in the context of solid state micro-cavity lasers. Their structural and functional exibility, compliance to etching, abiding to relatively easy and unconstrained design rules and basic technological fabrication steps will be considered in the second part. In the nal sections, different experimental lay-outs and methods to extract relevant information will be considered and subsequently challenged at different levels for specic generic cavity shapes, from nonchaotic and integrable to chaotic.
