Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Pick, Adi
• Zhen, Bo
• Miller, Owen D
• Hsu, Chia W
• Hernandez, Felipe
• Rodriguez, Alejandro W
• Soljačić, Marin
• Johnson, Steven G

Titel

General theory of spontaneous emission near exceptional points

Ist Teil von

• Optics express, 2017-05, Vol.25 (11), p.12325-12348

Ort / Verlag

United States: Optical Society of America (OSA)

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We present a general theory of spontaneous emission at exceptional points (EPs)-exotic degeneracies in non-Hermitian systems. Our theory extends beyond spontaneous emission to any light-matter interaction described by the local density of states (e.g., absorption, thermal emission, and nonlinear frequency conversion). Whereas traditional spontaneous-emission theories imply infinite enhancement factors at EPs, we derive finite bounds on the enhancement, proving maximum enhancement of 4 in passive systems with second-order EPs and significantly larger enhancements (exceeding 400×) in gain-aided and higher-order EP systems. In contrast to non-degenerate resonances, which are typically associated with Lorentzian emission curves in systems with low losses, EPs are associated with non-Lorentzian lineshapes, leading to enhancements that scale nonlinearly with the resonance quality factor. Our theory can be applied to dispersive media, with proper normalization of the resonant modes.