Spatial and Spectral Mode-Selection Effects in Topological Lasers with Frequency-Dependent Gain

Abstract

We develop a semiclassical theory of laser oscillation into a chiral edge state of a topological photonic system endowed with a frequency-dependent gain. As an archetypal model of this physics, we consider a Harper-Hofstadter lattice embedding population-inverted two-level atoms as gain material. We show that a suitable design of the spatial distribution of gain and of its spectral shape provides flexible mode selection mechanisms that can stabilize single-mode lasing into an edge state. Implications of our results for recent experiments are outlined.

arXiv commentMain Text: 11 pages, 3 figures. Supplementary Information: 13 pages, 6 figures. To be published in APL Photonics. With respect to version 1 we've carried out a thorough revision of the main text and a minor revision of the supplementary information, and we've added a time-frequency analysis in the supplementary information

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• Linearized theory of the fluctuation dynamics in 2D topological lasers
• Modelling lattices of organic polaritons
• Stability via symmetry breaking in interacting driven systems
• Photonic quantum Hall effects