Loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing

Abstract

Controlling and reversing the effects of loss are major challenges in optical systems. For lasers losses need to be overcome by a sufficient amount of gain to reach the lasing threshold. We show how to turn losses into gain by steering the parameters of a system to the vicinity of an exceptional point (EP), which occurs when the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenstates of a system coalesce. In our system of coupled microresonators, EPs are manifested as the loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing. Below a critical value, adding loss annihilates an existing Raman laser. Beyond this critical threshold, lasing recovers despite the increasing loss, in stark contrast to what would be expected from conventional laser theory. Our results exemplify the counterintuitive features of EPs and present an innovative method for reversing the effect of loss.

44 pages (12 pages Main Text, 32 pages Supplementary Material), 20 figures (4 figures Main Text, 16 figures Supplementary Material), 34 references (30 references Main Text + 4 references Supplementary Material)

References in corpus (2)

• Making Sense of Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians
• Reversing the Pump-Dependence of a Laser at an Exceptional Point

Cited by in corpus (32)

• Observation of the exceptional point in cavity magnon-polaritons
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• Optomechanically-Induced Transparency in partiy-time-symmetric microresonators
• Light stops at exceptional points
• Controllable optical response by modifying the gain and loss of a mechanical resonator and cavity mode in an optomechanical system
• Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain with one pair of PT-symmetric defects
• Exceptional Points and Asymmetric Mode Switching in Plasmonic Waveguides
• Stabilizing Non-Hermitian Systems by Periodic Driving
• Parity-Time Symmetric Coupled Microresonators with a Dispersive Gain/Loss
• Enhanced nonlinear frequency conversion and Purcell enhancement at exceptional points
• Giant Non-reciprocity Near Exceptional Point Degeneracies
• Distant entanglement enhanced in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric optomechanics
• Exceptional Points in three-dimensional Nanostructures
• Realization and application of parity-time-symmetric oscillators in quantum regime
• Multi-stability and condensation of exciton-polaritons below threshold
• Tailoring the energy distribution and loss of 2D plasmons
• Wave emission and absorption at spectral singularities
• Spectral Signatures of Exceptional Points and Bifurcations in the Fundamental Active Photonic Dimer
• Solitons in PT-symmetric ladders of optical waveguides
• Non-Hermiticity-Induced Wave Confinement and Guiding in Loss-Gain-Loss Three-Layer Systems
• $PT$-symmetric graphene under a magnetic field
• Pump induced lasing suppression in Yb:Er-doped microlasers
• Transparent Perfect Mirror
• Effects of non-uniform distributions of gain and loss in photonic crystals
• Scattering properties of a PT dipole
• Condensation of Thresholds in Multimode Microlasers
• Time invariant $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-product and phase locking in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric lattice models
• Topological dynamics in an optomechanical system with highly non-degenerate modes
• Modes and exceptional points in waveguides with impedance boundary conditions
• Analytic approximation for eigenvalues of a class of $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetric Hamiltonians
• Dissipation-Induced Super Scattering and Lasing PT-Spaser
• Vortex Laser at Exceptional Point