Crescent Waves in Optical Cavities

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to generate and study stationary crescent surface solitons in optical cavities, revealing symmetry-breaking waves that differ from linear modes, with implications for controlling lasing properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates the experimental and theoretical creation of symmetry-breaking crescent waves in micro-structured laser cavities, a new class of optical surface waves not present in linear regimes.

Findings

Successful generation of crescent surface solitons in experiments.

Identification of symmetry-breaking waves without linear analogs.

Potential for new control methods in laser design.

Abstract

We theoretically and experimentally generate stationary crescent surface solitons pinged to the boundary of a micro-structured vertical cavity surface emission laser by using the intrinsic cavity mode as a background potential. Instead of a direct transition from linear to nonlinear cavity modes, we demonstrate the existence of a symmetry-breaking crescent waves without any analogs in the linear limit. Our results provide an alternative and general method to control lasing characteristics as well as to study optical surface waves.