Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 346, Issue 6207, Pages 328-332Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1258004
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Funding
- Army Research Office (ARO) [W911NF-12-1-0026]
- U.S. Department of Energy [DE-FG02-91ER40628]
- RIKEN iTHES Project, Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives (MURI) Center for Dynamic Magneto-Optics
- Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) [MA09-030]
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [SFB-IR-ON F25-P14, SFB-NextLite F49-P10]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [22224007] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Controlling and reversing the effects of loss are major challenges in optical systems. For lasers, losses need to be overcome by a sufficient amount of gain to reach the lasing threshold. In this work, we show how to turn losses into gain by steering the parameters of a system to the vicinity of an exceptional point (EP), which occurs when the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenstates of a system coalesce. In our system of coupled microresonators, EPs are manifested as the loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing. Below a critical value, adding loss annihilates an existing Raman laser. Beyond this critical threshold, lasing recovers despite the increasing loss, in stark contrast to what would be expected from conventional laser theory. Our results exemplify the counterintuitive features of EPs and present an innovative method for reversing the effect of loss.
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