Directional bistability and nonreciprocal lasing with cold atoms in a ring cavity
Atomic Physics
2018-10-24 v2 Optics
Quantum Physics
Abstract
We demonstrate lasing into counter-propagating modes of a ring cavity using a gas of cold atoms as a gain medium. The laser operates under the usual conditions of magneto-optical trapping with no additional fields. We characterize the threshold behavior of the laser and measure the second-order optical coherence. The laser emission exhibits directional bistability, switching randomly between clockwise and counter-clockwise modes, and a tuneable nonreciprocity is observed as the atoms are displaced along the cavity axis.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.03147,
title = {Directional bistability and nonreciprocal lasing with cold atoms in a ring cavity},
author = {Balazs Megyeri and Graeme Harvie and Andreas Lampis and Jon Goldwin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.03147},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
Authors' version, with supplemental material included. Published in PRL at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.163603