Dynamic gain and frequency comb formation in exceptional-point lasers

Gao, Xingwei; He, Hao; Sobolewski, Scott; Cerjan, Alexander; Hsu, Chia Wei

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-52957-4

Title: Dynamic gain and frequency comb formation in exceptional-point lasers

Journal Article · 03 October 2024 · Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52957-4 · OSTI ID:2455053

;

; Sobolewski, Scott;

; Hsu, Chia Wei

Abstract Exceptional points (EPs)—singularities in the parameter space of non-Hermitian systems where two nearby eigenmodes coalesce—feature unique properties with applications such as sensitivity enhancement and chiral emission. Existing realizations of EP lasers operate with static populations in the gain medium. By analyzing the full-wave Maxwell–Bloch equations, here we show that in a laser operating sufficiently close to an EP, the nonlinear gain will spontaneously induce a multi-spectral multi-modal instability above a pump threshold, which initiates an oscillating population inversion and generates a frequency comb. The efficiency of comb generation is enhanced by both the spectral degeneracy and the spatial coalescence of modes near an EP. Such an “EP comb” has a widely tunable repetition rate, self-starts without external modulators or a continuous-wave pump, and can be realized with an ultra-compact footprint. We develop an exact solution of the Maxwell–Bloch equations with an oscillating inversion, describing all spatiotemporal properties of the EP comb as a limit cycle. We numerically illustrate this phenomenon in a 5-μm-long gain-loss coupled AlGaAs cavity and adjust the EP comb repetition rate from 20 to 27 GHz. This work provides a rigorous spatiotemporal description of the rich laser behaviors that arise from the interplay between the non-Hermiticity, nonlinearity, and dynamics of a gain medium.

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 2455053

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2455117

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 15; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

References (60)

Steady-state ab initio laser theory for fully or nearly degenerate cavity modes Burkhardt, Stephan; Liertzer, Matthias; Krimer, Dmitry O. Physical Review A, Vol. 92, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.013847	journal	July 2015
Pump-Induced Exceptional Points in Lasers Liertzer, M.; Ge, Li; Cerjan, A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.173901	journal	April 2012
General theory of spontaneous emission near exceptional points Pick, Adi; Zhen, Bo; Miller, Owen D. Optics Express, Vol. 25, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.012325	journal	January 2017
Spin vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with linear gain anisotropy: Prediction of exceptional points and nontrivial dynamical regimes Drong, Mariusz; Peřina, Jan; Fördös, Tibor Physical Review A, Vol. 107, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.107.033509	journal	March 2023
Nozaki–Bekki solitons in semiconductor lasers Opačak, Nikola; Kazakov, Dmitry; Columbo, Lorenzo L. Nature, Vol. 625, Issue 7996 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06915-7	journal	January 2024
Exceptional points in two dissimilar coupled diode lasers Kominis, Yannis; Choquette, Kent D.; Bountis, Anastassios Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5040036	journal	August 2018
Nonlinear modal interactions in parity-time (PT) symmetric lasers Ge, Li; El-Ganainy, Ramy Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24889	journal	May 2016
Nonlinear exceptional-point lasing with ab initio Maxwell–Bloch theory Benzaouia, Mohammed; Stone, A. D.; Johnson, Steven G. APL Photonics, Vol. 7, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0105963	journal	December 2022
Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator Del’Haye, P.; Schliesser, A.; Arcizet, O. Nature, Vol. 450, Issue 7173 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06401	journal	December 2007
Excess spontaneous emission in non-Hermitian optical systems. I. Laser amplifiers Siegman, A. E. Physical Review A, Vol. 39, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.39.1253	journal	February 1989
Frequency comb generation with lasers near exceptional points Gao, Xingwei; He, Hao; Sobolewski, Scott Optica Nonlinear Optics Topical Meeting 2023 https://doi.org/10.1364/NLO.2023.Tu1A.3	conference	January 2023
Calculated spontaneous emission factor for double-heterostructure injection lasers with gain-induced waveguiding Petermann, K. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 15, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1109/JQE.1979.1070064	journal	July 1979
Exceptional points and lasing self-termination in photonic molecules El-Ganainy, R.; Khajavikhan, M.; Ge, Li Physical Review A, Vol. 90, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.90.013802	journal	July 2014
Mechanisms of fast self pulsations in two-section DFB lasers Wenzel, H.; Bandelow, U.; Wunsche, H. -J. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 32, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/3.481922	journal	January 1996
Multifrequency operations in a short-cavity standing-wave laser Fu, Hong; Haken, H. Physical Review A, Vol. 43, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.43.2446	journal	March 1991
Optical properties of Al _x Ga _{1− x} As Aspnes, D. E.; Kelso, S. M.; Logan, R. A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 60, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.337426	journal	July 1986
Steady-state ab initio laser theory: Generalizations and analytic results Ge, Li; Chong, Y. D.; Stone, A. Douglas Physical Review A, Vol. 82, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.063824	journal	December 2010
Non-Hermitian photonics based on parity–time symmetry Feng, Liang; El-Ganainy, Ramy; Ge, Li Nature Photonics, Vol. 11, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-017-0031-1	journal	November 2017
Chiral modes and directional lasing at exceptional points Peng, Bo; Özdemir, Şahin Kaya; Liertzer, Matthias Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1603318113	journal	June 2016
Demonstration of a self-pulsing photonic crystal Fano laser Yu, Yi; Xue, Weiqi; Semenova, Elizaveta Nature Photonics, Vol. 11, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.248	journal	December 2016
Maxwell-Bloch equations for spatially inhomogeneous semiconductor lasers. I. Theoretical formulation Hess, Ortwin; Kuhn, Tilmann Physical Review A, Vol. 54, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.54.3347	journal	October 1996
Non-Hermitian ring laser gyroscopes with enhanced Sagnac sensitivity Hokmabadi, Mohammad P.; Schumer, Alexander; Christodoulides, Demetrios N. Nature, Vol. 576, Issue 7785 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1780-4	journal	December 2019
Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics Moiseyev, Nimrod https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511976186	book	May 2011
Dissipative Kerr solitons in optical microresonators Kippenberg, Tobias J.; Gaeta, Alexander L.; Lipson, Michal Science, Vol. 361, Issue 6402 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan8083	journal	August 2018
Frequency combs in quantum cascade lasers: An overview of modeling and experiments Silvestri, Carlo; Qi, Xiaoqiong; Taimre, Thomas APL Photonics, Vol. 8, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0134539	journal	February 2023
Mode degeneracies and the petermann excess-noise factor for unstable lasers Berry, M. V. Journal of Modern Optics, Vol. 50, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1080/09500340308234532	journal	January 2003
Orbital angular momentum microlaser Miao, Pei; Zhang, Zhifeng; Sun, Jingbo Science, Vol. 353, Issue 6298 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf8533	journal	July 2016
Ab initio Theory for Exceptional-Point Lasers and Periodic-Inversion Lasers Gao, Xingwei; He, Hao; Sobolewski, Scott CLEO 2023 https://doi.org/10.1364/CLEO_SI.2023.SF2N.8	conference	January 2023
Divergent Petermann factor of interacting resonances in a stadium-shaped microcavity Lee, Soo-Young; Ryu, Jung-Wan; Shim, Jeong-Bo Physical Review A, Vol. 78, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.78.015805	journal	July 2008
Exceptional points enhance sensing in an optical microcavity Chen, Weijian; Kaya Özdemir, Şahin; Zhao, Guangming Nature, Vol. 548, Issue 7666 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23281	journal	August 2017
Single-mode laser by parity-time symmetry breaking Feng, L.; Wong, Z. J.; Ma, R. -M. Science, Vol. 346, Issue 6212 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1258479	journal	October 2014
Theory of spontaneous emission noise in open resonators and its application to lasers and optical amplifiers Henry, C. Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 4, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/JLT.1986.1074715	journal	January 1986
Semiconductor laser dynamics beyond the rate-equation approximation Yao, Jun; Agrawal, Govind P.; Gallion, Philippe Optics Communications, Vol. 119, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-4018(95)00245-4	journal	August 1995
Quantitative verification of ab initio self-consistent laser theory Ge, Li; Tandy, Robert J.; Stone, A. D. Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.16.016895	journal	January 2008
Perfectly Absorbing Exceptional Points and Chiral Absorbers Sweeney, William R.; Hsu, Chia Wei; Rotter, Stefan Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.093901	journal	March 2019
The physics of exceptional points Heiss, W. D. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, Vol. 45, Issue 44 https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/45/44/444016	journal	October 2012
Spectral phase transitions in optical parametric oscillators Roy, Arkadev; Jahani, Saman; Langrock, Carsten Nature Communications, Vol. 12, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21048-z	journal	February 2021
Tracking exceptional points above the lasing threshold Ji, Kaiwen; Zhong, Qi; Ge, Li Nature Communications, Vol. 14, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43874-z	journal	December 2023
Electro-optic frequency combs Parriaux, Alexandre; Hammani, Kamal; Millot, Guy Advances in Optics and Photonics, Vol. 12, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1364/AOP.382052	journal	January 2020
Robustness and mode selectivity in parity-time (PT) symmetric lasers Teimourpour, M. H.; Khajavikhan, M.; Christodoulides, D. N. Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10216-1	journal	September 2017
Exceptional-point-based accelerometers with enhanced signal-to-noise ratio Kononchuk, Rodion; Cai, Jizhe; Ellis, Fred Nature, Vol. 607, Issue 7920 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04904-w	journal	July 2022
Normalization, orthogonality, and completeness of quasinormal modes of open systems: the case of electromagnetism [Invited] Sauvan, Christophe; Wu, Tong; Zarouf, Rachid Optics Express, Vol. 30, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.443656	journal	January 2022
Parity-time-symmetric microring lasers Hodaei, H.; Miri, M. -A.; Heinrich, M. Science, Vol. 346, Issue 6212 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1258480	journal	October 2014
Spectral method for efficient computation of time-dependent phenomena in complex lasers Malik, O.; Makris, K. G.; Türeci, H. E. Physical Review A, Vol. 92, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.063829	journal	December 2015
Quantum Noise Theory of Exceptional Point Amplifying Sensors Zhang, Mengzhen; Sweeney, William; Hsu, Chia Wei Physical Review Letters, Vol. 123, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.180501	journal	October 2019
Colloquium : Femtosecond optical frequency combs Cundiff, Steven T.; Ye, Jun Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 75, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.75.325	journal	March 2003
Mid-infrared frequency comb based on a quantum cascade laser Hugi, Andreas; Villares, Gustavo; Blaser, Stéphane Nature, Vol. 492, Issue 7428 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11620	journal	December 2012
Diagrammatic semiclassical laser theory Zaitsev, Oleg; Deych, Lev Physical Review A, Vol. 81, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.81.023822	journal	February 2010
Self-consistent multimode lasing theory for complex or random lasing media Türeci, Hakan E.; Stone, A. Douglas; Collier, B. Physical Review A, Vol. 74, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.74.043822	journal	October 2006
Tunable topological charge vortex microlaser Zhang, Zhifeng; Qiao, Xingdu; Midya, Bikashkali Science, Vol. 368, Issue 6492 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba8996	journal	May 2020
Non-Hermitian physics and PT symmetry El-Ganainy, Ramy; Makris, Konstantinos G.; Khajavikhan, Mercedeh Nature Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4323	journal	January 2018
Observation of the exceptional-point-enhanced Sagnac effect Lai, Yu-Hung; Lu, Yu-Kun; Suh, Myoung-Gyun Nature, Vol. 576, Issue 7785 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1777-z	journal	December 2019
Loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing Peng, B.; Ozdemir, . K.; Rotter, S. Science, Vol. 346, Issue 6207 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1258004	journal	October 2014
Exceptional points in optics and photonics Miri, Mohammad-Ali; Alù, Andrea Science, Vol. 363, Issue 6422 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar7709	journal	January 2019
Petermann-factor sensitivity limit near an exceptional point in a Brillouin ring laser gyroscope Wang, Heming; Lai, Yu-Hung; Yuan, Zhiquan Nature Communications, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15341-6	journal	March 2020
Noise resilient exceptional-point voltmeters enabled by oscillation quenching phenomena Suntharalingam, Arunn; Fernández-Alcázar, Lucas; Kononchuk, Rodion Nature Communications, Vol. 14, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41189-7	journal	September 2023
A phonon laser operating at an exceptional point Zhang, Jing; Peng, Bo; Özdemir, Şahin Kaya Nature Photonics, Vol. 12, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0213-5	journal	July 2018
Enhanced sensitivity at higher-order exceptional points Hodaei, Hossein; Hassan, Absar U.; Wittek, Steffen Nature, Vol. 548, Issue 7666 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23280	journal	August 2017
Topological modes in a laser cavity through exceptional state transfer Schumer, A.; Liu, Y. G. N.; Leshin, J. Science, Vol. 375, Issue 6583 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl6571	journal	February 2022
Strong Interactions in Multimode Random Lasers Tureci, H. E.; Ge, L.; Rotter, S. Science, Vol. 320, Issue 5876 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1155311	journal	May 2008

Similar Records

Bi-stability and period-doubling cascade of frequency combs in exceptional-point lasers

Journal Article · 2025 · Nanophotonics · OSTI ID:2567793

Gao, Xingwei; He, Hao; Chow, Weng W.; +2 more

On the Asymmetric Generation of a Superradiant Laser with a Symmetric Low-Q Cavity

Journal Article · 2019 · Semiconductors · OSTI ID:22944817

Kocharovsky, Vl. V.; Kukushkin, V. A.; Tarasov, S. V.; +1 more

Enhancement of vibrationally assisted energy transfer by proximity to exceptional points, probed by fluorescence-detected vibrational spectroscopy

Journal Article · 2024 · Physical Review Research · OSTI ID:2349187

Li, Zeng-Zhao; Whaley, K. Birgitta

Title: Dynamic gain and frequency comb formation in exceptional-point lasers

Citation Formats

References (60)

Similar Records

Related Subjects