Reversing the pump dependence of a laser at an exceptional point

Abstract

When two resonant modes in a system with gain or loss coalesce in both their resonance position and their width, a so-called exceptional point occurs, which acts as a source of non-trivial physics in a diverse range of systems. Lasers provide a natural setting to study such non-Hermitian degeneracies, as they feature resonant modes and a gain material as their basic constituents. Here we show that exceptional points can be conveniently induced in a photonic molecule laser by a suitable variation of the applied pump. Using a pair of coupled microdisk quantum cascade lasers, we demonstrate that in the vicinity of these exceptional points the coupled laser shows a characteristic reversal of its pump dependence, including a strongly decreasing intensity of the emitted laser light for increasing pump power.

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Cited by papers we hold 3

• Exceptional Point and Cross-Relaxation Effect in a Hybrid Quantum System · 2021
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• Topological hybrid silicon microlasers · 2018
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• High-order exceptional points in optomechanics · 2017
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