Mesoscopic limit cycles in coupled nanolasers

Abstract

Two coupled semiconductor nanolasers exhibit a mode switching transition, theoretically characterized by limit cycle $-$or mode-beating$-$ oscillations. Their decay rate is vanishingly small in the thermodynamic limit, i.e. when the spontaneous emission noise $\beta$-factor tends to zero. We provide experimental evidence of mesoscopic limit cycles $-$with $\sim 10^3$ intracavity photons$-$ through photon statistics measurements. We first show that the order parameter quantifying the limit cycle amplitude can be reconstructed from the mode intensity statistics. As a main result we observe a maximum of the averaged amplitude at the mode switching, accounting for limit cycle oscillations. We finally relate this maximum to a dip of mode cross-correlations, reaching a minimum of $g_{ij}^{(2)}=2/3$, which we show to be a mesoscopic limit. Coupled nanolasers are thus an appealing testbed for the investigation of spontaneous breaking of time-translation symmetry in presence of strong quantum fluctuations.

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• Limit Cycle Phase and Goldstone Mode in Driven Dissipative Systems
• Quantum density matrix theory for a laser without adiabatic elimination of the population inversion: transition to lasing in the class-B limit
• Signatures of Self-Trapping in the Driven-Dissipative Bose-Hubbard Dimer
• Designs toward synchronization of optical limit cycles with coupled silicon photonic crystal microcavities
• Pseudo-conservative dynamics of coupled polariton condensates
• Photon correlation measurements of stochastic limit cycles emerging from high-$Q$ nonlinear silicon photonic crystal microcavities
• Self-pulsing dynamics in microscopic lasers with dispersive mirrors
• Non-Hermitian zero mode laser in a nanophotonic trimer
• Non-stationarity and Dissipative Time Crystals: Spectral Properties and Finite-Size Effects
• Effects of High-$\beta$ on Phase-locking Stability and Tunability in Laterally Coupled Lasers