Nondissipative non-Hermitian dynamics and exceptional points in coupled optical parametric oscillators

Abstract

Engineered non-Hermitian systems featuring exceptional points (EPs) can lead to a host of extraordinary phenomena in diverse fields ranging from photonics, acoustics, opto-mechanics, and electronics to atomic physics. In optics, non-Hermitian dynamics are typically realized using dissipation and phase-insensitive gain accompanied by unavoidable fluctuations. Here, we introduce non-Hermitian dynamics of coupled optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) arising from phase-sensitive amplification and de-amplification, and show their distinct advantages over conventional non-Hermitian systems relying on laser gain and loss. OPO-based non-Hermitian systems can benefit from the instantaneous nature of the parametric gain, noiseless phase-sensitive amplification, and rich quantum and classical nonlinear dynamics. We show that two coupled OPOs can exhibit spectral anti-parity-time (anti-PT) symmetry and a EP between its degenerate and nondegenerate operation regimes. To demonstrate the distinct potentials of the coupled OPO system compared to conventional non-Hermitian systems, we present higher-order EPs with two OPOs, tunable Floquet EPs in a reconfigurable dynamic non-Hermitian system, and the generation of a squeezed vacuum around EPs, all of which are not easy to realize in other non-Hermitian platforms. We believe our results show that coupled OPOs are an outstanding non-Hermitian setting with unprecedented opportunities to realize nonlinear dynamical systems for enhanced sensing and quantum information processing.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 18, 2021
Source ID
10.1364/optica.415569

Entities

People

  • Alireza Marandi
  • Arkadev Roy
  • Avik Dutt
  • Mohammad-Ali Miri
  • Qiushi Guo
  • Saman Jahani
  • Shanhui Fan

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • California Institute of Technology
  • City University of New York
  • National Science Foundation
  • Stanford University
  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene
  • Quantum Computing