PT-symmetry breaking and laser-absorber modes in optical scattering systems.

By Y. Chong, L. Ge, A. Douglas Stone. Physical Review Letters, 2010

771 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using a scattering matrix formalism, we derive the general scattering properties of optical structures that are symmetric under a combination of parity and time reversal (PT). We demonstrate the existence of a transition between PT-symmetric scattering eigenstates, which are norm preserving, and symmetry-broken pairs of eigenstates exhibiting net amplification and loss. The system proposed by Longhi [Phys. Rev. A 82, 031801 (2010).], which can act simultaneously as a laser and coherent perfect absorber, occurs at discrete points in the broken-symmetry phase, when a pole and zero of the S matrix coincide.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/402709791d4544800d142b1585fa7121a0d1063b

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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Citations in the corpus

Exceptional points in optics and photonics (2019, background): “3B, can simultaneously act as a laser and a coherent perfect absorber at the exceptional point (55, 62).”
Unidirectional Cloaking Based on Metasurfaces with Balanced Loss and Gain (2015, neutral): “absorber modes [28], enhanced nonreciprocity [29,30],”
Unidirectional reflectionless light propagation at exceptional points (2017, background): “We also note that the scattering matrix S as defined here [Equation (1)], which is in general nonsymmetrical, is different from the typical convention used in electromagnetics [22].”
Nonlinear waves in PT -symmetric systems (2016, background): “Such a potential can operate either as a laser or as an absorber, i.e., as a CPA-laser (Chong, Ge, and Stone, 2011; Longhi, 2010).”
Light fields in complex media: Mesoscopic scattering meets wave control (2017, background): “Subsequent work also demonstrated how a laser and a CPA can be combined in a single device (Chong et al., 2011; Longhi, 2010).”
Generalized parity–time symmetry condition for enhanced sensor telemetry (2018, background): “For instance, one potential application of our proposed reciprocally scaling operation is to provide an additional knob to tailor the threshold gain of PT-symmetric singlemode lasers [18]-[20] or coherent perfect absorber-lasers [16],[17] by breaking the exact balance of gain and loss coefficients, ”
Coherent perfect absorption at an exceptional point (2021, background): “This case can be understood in terms of gauged PT-symmetry (39), where we expect all three types of EPs to coincide (5, 21, 29, 40).”
PT-symmetric acoustics (2015, background): “Several interesting physical features have been explored, such as power oscillations [28], unidirectional invisibility [29–32], the reconfigurable Talbot effect [33], and coherent perfect laser absorbers [34,35].”