Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers

We present a theoretical study of the temporal and spatial coherence properties of a topological laser device built by including saturable gain on the edge sites of a Harper-Hofstadter lattice for photons. For small enough lattices, the Bogoliubov analysis applies, and the coherence time is almost d...

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Autores principales:	Ivan Amelio, Iacopo Carusotto
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2020
Materias:	Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/149c54fa5e35486996addfca08ab299f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:149c54fa5e35486996addfca08ab299f2021-12-02T13:27:33ZTheory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers10.1103/PhysRevX.10.0410602160-3308https://doaj.org/article/149c54fa5e35486996addfca08ab299f2020-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.041060http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.041060https://doaj.org/toc/2160-3308We present a theoretical study of the temporal and spatial coherence properties of a topological laser device built by including saturable gain on the edge sites of a Harper-Hofstadter lattice for photons. For small enough lattices, the Bogoliubov analysis applies, and the coherence time is almost determined by the total number of photons in the device in agreement with the standard Schawlow-Townes phase diffusion. In larger lattices, looking at the lasing edge mode in the comoving frame of its chiral motion, the spatiotemporal correlations of long-wavelength fluctuations display a Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) scaling. Still, at very long times, when the finite size of the device starts to matter, the functional form of the temporal decay of coherence changes from the KPZ stretched exponential to a Schawlow-Townes-like exponential, while the nonlinear dynamics of KPZ fluctuations remains visible as a broadened linewidth as compared to the Bogoliubov-Schawlow-Townes prediction. While we establish the above behaviors also for nontopological 1D laser arrays, the crucial role of topology in protecting the coherence from static disorder is finally highlighted: Our numerical calculations suggest the dramatically reinforced coherence properties of topological lasers compared to corresponding nontopological devices. These results open exciting possibilities for both fundamental studies of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and concrete applications to laser devices. Ivan AmelioIacopo CarusottoAmerican Physical SocietyarticlePhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review X, Vol 10, Iss 4, p 041060 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Physics QC1-999 Ivan Amelio Iacopo Carusotto Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers
description	We present a theoretical study of the temporal and spatial coherence properties of a topological laser device built by including saturable gain on the edge sites of a Harper-Hofstadter lattice for photons. For small enough lattices, the Bogoliubov analysis applies, and the coherence time is almost determined by the total number of photons in the device in agreement with the standard Schawlow-Townes phase diffusion. In larger lattices, looking at the lasing edge mode in the comoving frame of its chiral motion, the spatiotemporal correlations of long-wavelength fluctuations display a Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) scaling. Still, at very long times, when the finite size of the device starts to matter, the functional form of the temporal decay of coherence changes from the KPZ stretched exponential to a Schawlow-Townes-like exponential, while the nonlinear dynamics of KPZ fluctuations remains visible as a broadened linewidth as compared to the Bogoliubov-Schawlow-Townes prediction. While we establish the above behaviors also for nontopological 1D laser arrays, the crucial role of topology in protecting the coherence from static disorder is finally highlighted: Our numerical calculations suggest the dramatically reinforced coherence properties of topological lasers compared to corresponding nontopological devices. These results open exciting possibilities for both fundamental studies of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and concrete applications to laser devices.
format	article
author	Ivan Amelio Iacopo Carusotto
author_facet	Ivan Amelio Iacopo Carusotto
author_sort	Ivan Amelio
title	Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers
title_short	Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers
title_full	Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers
title_fullStr	Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers
title_full_unstemmed	Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers
title_sort	theory of the coherence of topological lasers
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/149c54fa5e35486996addfca08ab299f
work_keys_str_mv	AT ivanamelio theoryofthecoherenceoftopologicallasers AT iacopocarusotto theoryofthecoherenceoftopologicallasers
_version_	1718392957320560640

Theory of the Coherence of Topological Lasers

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