Spontaneous mirror-symmetry breaking in coupled photonic-crystal nanolasers

By P. Hamel, S. Haddadi, F. Raineri, P. Monnier, G. Beaudoin, Isabelle Sagnes, A. Levenson, A. Yacomotti. Nature Photonics, 2014

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The observation of symmetry breaking in a coupled nanolaser system could yield new types of switchable devices. Multi-cavity photonic systems, also known as photonic molecules, exhibit multi-well potentials that may prove useful for advanced quantum and nonlinear optics1,2,3,4. A key phenomenon arising in double-well potentials is the spontaneous breaking of inversion symmetry, with a transition to two localized states in the wells, which are mirror images of each other. Although a few theoretical studies have addressed mirror-symmetry breaking in micro- and nanophotonic systems5,6,7, no experimental evidence has been reported to date. Here, we demonstrate spontaneous mirror-symmetry breaking through a pitchfork bifurcation in a photonic molecule composed of two coupled photonic-crystal nanolasers. The coexistence of localized states is shown by switching them with short pulses. This offers exciting prospects for the realization of ultra-compact, integrated, scalable optical flip-flops. Analysis suggests that such symmetry breaking should be possible with a small number of intracavity photons and is thus suitable for quantum correlation devices.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2be16b35839e12bcc30044387b3e53c5d7e283b5

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