Symmetry-protected zero-mode laser with a tunable spatial profile

Abstract

We propose to utilize symmetry-protected zero modes of a photonic lattice to realize a single-mode, fixed-frequency, and spatially tunable laser. These properties are the consequence of the underlying non-Hermitian particle-hole symmetry, with which the energy spectrum satisfies ${\epsilon }_m=-{\epsilon }_n^{\ast }$. Unlike in the Hermitian case, the symmetric phase of particle-hole symmetry is no longer restricted to $\epsilon =0$ but extends along the imaginary-$\epsilon$ axis, which is set by the single-cavity frequency and symmetry-protected against position and coupling disorder of the photonic lattice. By selectively pumping different cavities in the photonic lattice, we control the spontaneous symmetry restoration process, which provides a convenient method to tune the spatial profile of the laser without changing its frequency.

8 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
• Topological Photonics
• PT-symmetry breaking and laser-absorber modes in optical scattering systems
• Visualization of Branch Points in PT-Symmetric Waveguides
• Observation of a localized flat-band state in a photonic Lieb lattice
• Observation of bound states in Lieb photonic lattices
• Selective enhancement of topologically induced interface states in a dielectric resonator chain
• Reversing the Pump-Dependence of a Laser at an Exceptional Point
• Asymmetric scattering and non-orthogonal mode patterns in optical micro-spirals
• Experimental observation of the dual behavior of $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric scattering
• Chaos-assisted directional light emission from microcavity lasers
• Exceptional points and lasing self-termination in photonic molecules
• Active subnanometer spectral control of a random laser
• Theory of the spatial structure of non-linear lasing modes