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Lasing and anti-lasing in a single cavity

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 796–801 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Lasing, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, is a key attribute for many important applications in optical communications, medicine and defence. Conversely, anti-lasing represents the time-reversed counterpart of laser emission, where incoming radiation is coherently absorbed. Here, we experimentally realize lasing and anti-lasing at the same frequency in a single cavity using parity–time symmetry. Because of the time-reversal property, the demonstrated lasing and anti-lasing resonances share common resonant features such as identical frequency dependence, coherent in-phase response and fine spectral resolution. Lasing and anti-lasing in a single device offers a new route for light modulation with high contrast approaching the ultimate limit.

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Figure 1: CPA–laser for lasing and anti-lasing in a single cavity.
Figure 2: Experimental characterization scheme for the CPA–laser.
Figure 3: Lasing and anti-lasing measurement.
Figure 4: Phase response of outgoing waves by coherent light control.

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Acknowledgements

This work was primarily funded by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of the US Department of Energy within the Metamaterials Program (KC12XZ). L.F. acknowledges the US Army Research Office (W911NF-15-1-0152) that supports the simulation. We thank the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the technical support in nanofabrication, and D. Olynick for discussions.

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Author notes

  1. Zi Jing Wong, Ye-Long Xu and Jeongmin Kim: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, 3112 Etcheverry Hall

    Zi Jing Wong, Ye-Long Xu, Jeongmin Kim, Kevin O'Brien, Yuan Wang & Xiang Zhang

  2. University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Zi Jing Wong, Ye-Long Xu, Jeongmin Kim, Kevin O'Brien, Yuan Wang & Xiang Zhang

  3. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Yuan Wang & Xiang Zhang

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, The State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, 14260, New York, USA

    Liang Feng

  5. Department of Physics, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Xiang Zhang

Authors
  1. Zi Jing Wong
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Contributions

Z.J.W., L.F. and X.Z. designed the experiment. Y.-L.X., Z.J.W. and L.F. performed the theoretical calculations and numerical simulations. Z.J.W. fabricated the samples. J.K., Y.-L.X., Z.J.W. and K.O.B. built the optical set-up, Z.J.W., Y.-L.X. and J.K. carried out the measurements and data analysis. All authors contributed to discussions and writing of the manuscript. X.Z., L.F. and Y.W. guided the research.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Liang Feng or Xiang Zhang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Wong, Z., Xu, YL., Kim, J. et al. Lasing and anti-lasing in a single cavity. Nature Photon 10, 796–801 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.216

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