Interaction-induced mode switching in steady-state microlasers
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Johnson_Interaction-induced.pdf
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1.29 MB
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Author(s)
Ge, Li
Cerjan, Alexander
Rotter, Stefan
Cao, Hui
Türeci, Hakan E.
Stone, A. Douglas
Liu, David
Johnson, Steven G
Date Issued
January 2016
Journal
Optics Express
Publisher
Optical Society of America
Citation
Ge, Li et al. “Interaction-Induced Mode Switching in Steady-State Microlasers.” Optics Express 24.1 (2016): 41.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We demonstrate that due to strong modal interactions through cross-gain saturation, the onset of a new lasing mode can switch off an existing mode via a negative power slope. In this process of interaction-induced mode switching (IMS) the two involved modes maintain their identities, i.e. they do not change their spatial field patterns or lasing frequencies. For a fixed pump profile, a simple analytic criterion for the occurrence of IMS is given in terms of their self- and cross-interaction coefficients and non-interacting thresholds, which is verified for the example of a two-dimensional microdisk laser. When the spatial pump profile is varied as the pump power is increased, IMS can be induced even when it would not occur with a fixed pump profile, as we show for two coupled laser cavities. Our findings apply to steady-state lasing and are hence different from dynamical mode switching or hopping. IMS may have potential applications in robust and flexible all-optical switching.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.24.000041
