Topological lasing and self-induced transparency in two level systems
Abstract
The use of virtually lossless topologically isolated edge states may lead to a novel class of thresholdless lasers operating without inversion. One needs however to understand if topological states may be coupled to external radiation and act as active cavities. We study a two-level topological insulator and show that self-induced transparency pulses can directly excite edge states. We simulate laser emission by a suitable designed topological cavity, and show that it can emit tunable radiation. For a configuration of sites following the off-diagonal Aubry-Andre-Harper model we solve the Maxwell-Bloch equations in the time domain and provide a first principle confirmation of topological lasers. Our results open the road to a new class of light emitters with topological protection for applications ranging from low-cost energetically-effective integrated lasers sources, also including silicon photonics, to strong coupling devices for studying ultrafast quantum processes with engineered vacuum.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1602.06782,
title = {Topological lasing and self-induced transparency in two level systems},
author = {Laura Pilozzi and Claudio Conti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.06782},
year = {2016}
}